This city is a gem. What a lovely place to chill out and explore. We arrived in the afternoon after an eight hour bumpy adventure bus ride. That was an interesting ride. The bus double-backed at one point for reasons unknown. We got crowded by a bunch of local’s crammed into the aisle. But we …
We had a plan. We were going to do some adventure sports, then stay at a farm for a couple weeks and learn all about Ecuadorian cuisine. That was the plan. That was not what happened. We (Graham mostly) got really excited as soon as we got to Baños and signed us up for a …
The Quilatoa Crater Loop is a three day, 35km hike up through farming villages and valleys to the Quilatoa volcano crater, which the goal of the hike, on the final day. Now, you can take a bus there, but what’s the fun in that. We started our journey by arriving in the start and finish …
Our second stint in Quito was planned with the Diez de Agosto celebrations, and Huecafest, Ecuador’s Taste of London equivalent. Of course, things never quite turn out the way you think they do. When guests came in on our final day in Cotopaxi, they came with disturbing news form the capital. Presidential candidate, Fernando Villavicencio, …
Quite literally one volcano over from Quito, to the southeast, lies an expansive plateau valley nestled between similar giants. What we call volcano valley, and what the world calls Cotopaxi National Park, was a landscape unlike anything we’ve ever seen. We booked a trip with our hostel to their sister location, Secret Garden Cotopaxi. At …
Mindo, Mindo, Mindo!!! Any apprehensions we had about finding our bus were gone in an instant. Its clear that bus stations in Ecuador have dealt with too many clueless gringo’s so everything is very simple. Easier for us, I guess. The bus ride was a memorable one, quickly descending the country on small two lane …
This was a total whirlwind day trip out of Quito. So many things! Otavalo is a city two hours north of Quito. It is most famous for the indigenous market that goes on in the centre of the city every Saturday. Luckily for us, we went on a Saturday. We got on the tour bus …
Welcome to an entire new type of adventure! The South American kind! The Ecuadorian kind! Quito style! One 30 hour sleep in the airport till the security guard wakes you up travel day later, we arrived in the Ecuadorian capital of Quito. Immediately we felt a different presence here than in Europe. English is no …
As we write this, we are in our second Porto hostel. Our first got filled up by some Italian catholic youth in town to travel to Lisbon for World Youth Day in their quest to see the Pope. Our writing sessions are interrupted by various youth groups breaking out into song in their various languages. …
Well, we just created a European tier list of stuff. You will see that after all the Europe blogs come out. A week or two probably. It’s 45 minutes until we head for the Porto Airport. We will spend our final night in Europe in the Barcelona Airport terminal. A rather unsexy location for the …