My Reluctant Ecuador Vacation

            On June 24, 2013 my wife, Betty, and I set off for a ten day vacation in Ecuador.   We arrived in Quito near midnight of the first day and spent two days in the capital city.   Joining us on the trip was one of our daughters and her husband. 

           We hired a cabdriver to take us around while in Quito.  This proved to be a good decision as Quito is a crazy place to navigate and the driver knew the good places to take us in the limited time we had.  The first day we paid $40 for about eight hours touring the city.  The second day we paid $90 for twelve hours and about 200 miles in the mountain regions.   What a bargain!   We also had him join us for our meals and paid his bill.  I think he appreciated that.  And we did give him well deserved tips each day.

           After Quito we rented a car and drove a couple hundred miles south to Guayaquil.  Since this is where Betty was originally from we spent the most time here.  It's another bustling city that is more modern than Quito.  We paid a visit to the University of Guayaquil where my wife received her doctorate degree.  Our delightful hostess in Guayaquil took us to many of the more notable sights of the city.  We also spent a day visiting some of the beaches along Ecuador's Pacific Coast.

          Returning to Quito for our flight home, we made a one night stopover at the resort town of Baños de Agua Santa .  The trip from Guayaquil took longer than anticipated so our visit to Banos was shorter than we had planned. The final day was a few hours spent getting back to Quito and turning in early so that we could get up at 2 AM in order to make it to the airport for an early flight. Our trusty cab driver from our earlier visit was there to take us to the airport. What a dependable guy he turned out to be.

          As I went through our photographic records of the trip I realized that I was heavy on video, but short on photos.   For this reason I don't have much in the way of scenic shots.   I mostly used the still camera for photos with my wife's friends and relatives.  

          By the way, my wife is originally from Ecuador, which is why she wanted to make this trip.  Her daughter wanted to meet some relatives and my wife wanted to catch up to friends she hadn't seen in decades.   Sweet wife treated me to the trip and I'm glad she did.  In my next post I'll explain a bit about my reluctance about going.  In this current post I'll share a few of the few photos I managed to take while in Ecuador.

Pululahua Crater not too far from the Equator Monument Park afforded a panoramic view.  It was a weekday so things weren't too busy out in the country.   The city was another story entirely.  I thought Los Angeles traffic was bad!

My lovely wife, Betty, at the Equator with the flag of the nation of her birth.  She  has an affection for Ecuador of course, but she's been a proud citizen of the United States for many years.

Arlee and Betty kissing at the Equator.

Posing in front of the Equator monument or "El Mitad del Mundo".    Though it's supposed to represent the zero degrees latitude line, it's actually a bit off.   The park where this is located is probably Quito's most visited attraction.

 My meal at the world renown five star La Mirage Garden Hotel Restaurant in Cotacachi.   It's a platter of typical Ecuadorian cuisine including pork prepared in a variety of ways, potatoes, mote (hominy), avocado, and a few other things of which I can't remember the names.  It was delicious.  Since we were there at lunch we had the restaurant to ourselves, but the service was still outstanding.  Without our cabdriver we'd probably have missed this experience. 

    

My wife and I during boat tour of Cuicocha Lake in crater at the foot of the Cotacachi Volcano.   The mountain scenery around us was spectacular.

We stopped somewhere between Guayaquil and Baños for lunch.  The trip was amazing in it's beauty, but somewhat grueling with the mountain roads, construction, and periodic rain.   There weren't many choices for eating so we stopped in this town of which I don't recall the name.   The meal was not very memorable either.  I thought the town was picturesque enough for a photo.  This is the view from the restaurant where we ate.

         Here is my first experiment with putting together a movie.   This is a crater lake at the foot of the volcano Cotacachi.   The clip is about 7 minutes so you may wish to fast forward in places.

        I hope you've enjoyed my very brief overview of our trip.  I'll have a bit more to say on Friday.

         Have you been to Ecuador?   If so, what were your impressions of the country?   Have you ever made a reluctant journey that turned out much better than you expected?   Have you taken any trips yet this summer or have you planned one in the weeks to come?

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