The Galapagos are kind of like Pistachios March 21, 2019 (I found my first beach of the trip in Galapagos. It never really feels like a real trip until you find the beach.) My boatmate Lou described the Galapagos like this: They’re kind of like pistachios. It takes a lot of work to get the […]
The Great Galapagos Experiment
The Great Galapagos Experiment March 20, 2019 Hola y’all! It’s been a little over a week since my last post. Once I got to Galapagos I shut the computer down and just took it easy. Been back on the mainland for a few days now and putting my thoughts together on the islands has taken […]
Cerca de Otavalo
Cerca Otavalo Saturday March 9, 2019 Tonight is my last night in Otavalo and I couldn’t have had a better day to end the visit. Otavalo is known for it’s enormous Saturday market. Originally the way the local indigenous communities came together to swap their goods, it turned into ‘a thing’ and then ‘the thing’ to do […]
Charming Cotacachi
Charming Cotacachi March 7, 2019 I’ve been in Otavalo five days now and feel settled. To be honest, I’m not looking forward to packing my bag back up in a few days but I’ll enjoy the rest of my time here while I can. I found a Spanish school – well two actually. I took […]
On to Otavalo
On to Otavalo March 3, 2019 Parque Simon Bolivar Otavalo, Ecuador It is Carnaval in South America right now. The official day is March 5, but the festivities get started early. While it sounded like it could be fun to watch, it also sounded like it could be a bit of a mess, so I […]
Pacheco and the Three Amigos
Pacheco and the Three Amigos February 28, 2019 Pacheco Farmhouse is an unexpected, renewed hippie chic guesthouse a off the beaten path. (It took about 6 hours worth of bus rides to get to Apuela in the Intag Valley.) As the owner Jimena says, the location pretty much keeps the assholes away. Seems so as […]
Saturday with Sandy
Saturday with Sandy March 2, 2019 Today was my first full day at El Refugio de Intag Cloud Forest and was looking forward to a slower pace and nature immersion. El Refugio de Intag Cloud Forest is a naturalists answer to the Four Seasons. I met Peter Joost, the owner, at 7am for coffee […]
TeleferiQo and the Day of Angels
TeleferiQo and the Day of the Angels February 27, 2019 As Elisa would agree, one of the joys of travel is finding funiculars. The fancy version of funiculars is cable cars, and Quito’s is named the TeleferiQo. After an early morning adventure depositing cash into a bank account for the Galapagos tour (sometimes you just […]
Old Town Quito
Old Town Quito February 26, 2019 The hostal offered a free walking tour courtesy of CarpeDM travel (located inside the hostal) and I signed up. The owner of CarpeDM, Paul (I think), started out the tour with the most enlightened introduction to Ecuador imaginable. Paul was inspired by poetry to move to Ecuador and start […]
Quito
Quito February 25, 2019 After the very nice stay at Posado Mirolindo, I decided to try my luck with a hostel and opted for TheSecret Garden Quito (also related to The Secret Garden Cotopaxi). The Secret Garden was voted best hostel for solo travelers and with a $10/night shared room rate and an upstairs deck, […]
Buddha & Boots 