The highlight of my trip to Ecuador (and in my opinion, ANY trip to Ecuador) was visiting the Galapagos Islands. That being said, I didn’t want to visit this exciting country and see only one location. Quito also beckons with so much to offer: the colonial Old Town (an actual UNESCO World Heritage site), numerous Read More »
Española was my second-favorite island that we visited. It was just gorgeous! Within moments of our dry landing on rocks, we passed by many sea lions frolicking in the water. The sun was so bright, and the water so clear, that I was just entranced. The dry landing area is really neat because it is Read More »
Our 7-night cruise was actually a 3-night and 4-night cruise put together. Most people stayed all 7 nights, but we did have some people leave this day. We had even more passengers come aboard the ship, although we were still way under capacity. So, this day was slightly different, although I could tell that our Read More »
This was our last day of our Galapagos cruise, and so we only had time for one destination in the morning. I spent most of the day moping and thinking about how much I wanted to stay and do the whole thing over. Cruising the Galapagos is so exciting! One of my favorite parts was Read More »
We visited the Botanic Gardens in Quito, inside the Parque Carolina. They were cute, but the signs were only in Spanish and my language skills are seriously lacking. This was major motivation to start studying! We visited the neat orchid section and had fun looking at the cactus section too. It was a very low-key, Read More »
A Quito siamo restati solo tre giorni e due notti, e’ una citta’ molto bella. L’Ostello The Secret Garden era poco distante dal centro storico ma nella citta’ c’erano varie zone molto pericolose dove non potevamo neanche camminare a piedi. L’Ostello aveva una bellissima terrazza che si affacciafa sulla citta’ con una vista stupenda, la Read More »
After an uneventful boarder crossing, I took a bus for about 3 hours to a town called Otavalo, famous for it Saturday market. One big shock now being in Ecuador is that you have to pay for everything in dollars. I need to get used to haggling over 50 cents. 1000 Colombian pesos is much Read More »
At 8 AM the animal market in Otavalo has been in full swing for almost two hours. As you approach the market, the streets are lined with vendors that sell any kind of household or clothing item imaginable. People holding multiple live chickens by their feet with their heads dangling down or pulling a squealing Read More »
Since many of you have asked some of the same questions, I´m going to answer many of them now in this handy FAQ: Q: Are you really taking Spanish classes? What is that like? What does it involve? Who is your teacher? Yes! I´m really taking spanish classes. I have two hours in the morning Read More »
Arrival We knew this was going to be a good trip before we even got on the boat. Waiting at the jetty near the airport at Baltra we were treated to the sight of huge pelicans diving into the water and big sea lions lumbered past us (after posing for a few photos) to huffily Read More »
