Ecuador Travel Blogs, Travelogues and Travel Journals - Page 2

Tuesday morning was devoted to the seabirds of the Galapagos Islands. Of the 140 bird species found on the islands, 89 are seabirds. Two terns (the Sooty and Brown noddy), two boobies (the Blue-footed and Red-footed), two frigate birds (Magnificent and Great), Storm Petrels, Red Billed Tropic Birds and the Waved Albatross all nest on the islands in significant numbers. The Galapagos has the world’s largest colony of Red Footed Boobies and 30% of the world’s Blue Footed Boobies. Oth…

Hi everyone, not really much to say for my first day but I wanted to let the worriers know that after an all nighter last night and about 15 hours of sleeping on planes and airports I made it here safely. I should have some stories soon and the free internet here in the hostel has camera card slots so I should be able to upload some pics soon.  Stay tuned...   I spent the day roaming through old town Quito.  It reminds me of Havana Cuba but cleaner.  As ex…

My first travel to Ecuador. It was so amazing, that i decided to go back to learn spanish...(See Blog Ecuador 2007). I was travelling with a group of 16 swiss people...and i was definitely the youngest one...hahaha. it was a great time, but won't do it again in group!

It´s a honour to be in this paradise on earth. Galapagos is a place that deserves all our respect, being there approaches you to the Charles Darwin old times,.. i could imagine him sailing on the Beagle with his amazed face discovering so many interesting things. Besides the impresive different landscapes of lava, mangrove, palo santo or cacti, you will have that undescriptible sensation of being close to many varieties of animals that stay close to you and that have no fear at all!

Sometimes they say that life is stranger than fiction. As I stood outside the bathroom next to the cock fighting pit looking at newspaper clippings and talking to a man about his friend in the photos, who of course is a world champion speed walker at multiple distances, and how they train in the high altitude mountains outside of Otavalo, I thought how true that is. But perhaps such is one´s quest to see a cock fight, especially the one in Otavalo. After confirming the location of the pit wi…

I´m spending around 1 year in South America, I had an amazing time. Enjoy my pictures, I'd do it again.

I have now been just over a week in Ecuador, and 5 days volountereeing at the Rescue Centre in Tambillo.. I have swapped my corset, my mini skirts and my stiletto for waterproof jacket, waterproof ugly pants and wellies. Instead of shopping at the mall, I pick up shit on daily bases, lots of it and all kind of it. I usued to check my self in the mirror a good hundred times a day, now I have not seen my self in a mirror for over a week; my eyebrow are probably wild, like the rest …

I spent Saturday, walking around Old Quito on beautiful cobbled stone streets, losing my breath on mild inclines, and hanging out at an internet café, well-positioned near a public bathroom.  After a short walk and lunch at a local restaurant I chose after giving up on finding the one in the guidebook, I found myself back at the internet café, where I am perfectly comfortable.  I managed to take the really cheap public transportation back to relatively close to my homestay an…

So, we spent the morning nursing our wounded.. Well, that only consists of Ben and I.. Ben is EXTREMELY burnt so we were quite hesitant to leave the hostel before we had to.. The sun is scorching fromm 7AM to 7pm.. Ecuador is just moving into the rainy season here in the next few weeks, so they are still in the dry, sun scorching down, no cloud in the sky season. Luckly.. the great worker Ester at our hostel noticed our big puppy dog eyes and had pity on us and gave us a leaf off the hostel´…

Well I´ve been here a week and it feels like much longer, I´ve done loads of stuff, I don´t know where to begin! Spanish school is over, I´m not sure I learned a great deal in a week even though my teacher gave me a test everyday. It was more like a refresher. I would have liked to do another week but need to start moving south this week. It served its purpose though, I got to settle in and meet other people. I went to school in the morning 8.30 until 12pm and then had the rest of the da…

I’m sitting on the terrace of my hostel, Secret Garden, looking out over Quito, which spreads in all directions uphill, leading halfway up the majestic green mountains that create this valley.  Sleeping in MIA was no problem as I figured, loads of people were doing it all around me.  The air conditioner however was up so high I couldn’t stay warm so I ended up chattering my teeth all night and barely slept much.  The flight over was well timed as Hurricane Fay apparently is…

The Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador offers diverse alternatives for you to visit. You can go either to the close Andean slopes cities like Tena and Misahualli areas where there are a lot of lodges. Or you can take a 30 minutes flight to go deeper in the jungle: Coca, Lago Agrio, Shell, for a more adventurous trip. In this areas you will be close to Yasuni National Park, Cuyabeno Reserve, Huaorani Territory...

On Sunday the presidential elections took place here in Ecuador.  It´s been very interesting to follow, with a huge amount of propaganda and publicity everywhere from posters, scrawlings on walls and adverts running across the tv screen during high-profile football matches!!  There were 13 candidates in total, and the aim was to narrow them down to two who will contst for the presidency towards the end of November.  The highest-profile figure was Rafael Correa, a friend of Hug…

Only a few more weeks before retuning to SA! I'm looking forward to seeing new countries, revisiting more familiar ones & hopefully falling in love all over again...with South America that is ;) Ok fellow travelers, stay tuned for more blogs from SA! Ciao!

I was looking back to find an old picture of the Funky Money hostal in Montanita and I decided to add these.  I wanted to show my Peace Corp buddy how much that town has changed.