Ecuador - set 1

Jan 6-12, 2024

The first 5 days of our holiday were spent in Ecuador, before flying to the Galapagos Islands.

We landed in Quito which is 2850m high! Our bodies had to adjust to the thin air. The colorful blossoms and full on sunshine were quite the contrast to the short cold & wet days we'd left behind in Canada.

But the next day the peaceful tranquility of our beautiful resort was shattered when Christine burst into our room, exclaiming that an "extremely dangerous" druglord, Fito leader of the powerful Los Choneros gang, escaped maximum security prison in Guayaquil which is 430km southwest of Quito. This led to at least six wide-spread prison riots and at least ten deaths.We were only a 20-minute drive away from the capital city. The new governor, Noboa declared a 60-day state of emergency and curfew from 11:00pm-5:ooam.

Day 1, Jan 6:

Because of a 37-hour layover in Miami, we booked an ocean-front resort for the night.

Flying over the southern US.

pic 2) Our resort, the Circa 98 Hotel was only a block away from the beach.

If felt so good to be in the warm sun on a soft sandy beach. We had just enough time for a short stroll before heading back to the airport.

Chinese Ixora Sea

Bougainvillea Beach Sunflower

Kingston-buttercup.

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Day 2, Jan 7-8:

A 4-hour flight got us to Quito. The jets flew right above our resort, the airport being a very close neighbor. At first we found the loud sound annoying. But a day later, after the terrorist crisis, the sound was assuring. We were glad the airport had not been shut down as the whole city of Quito had been.

This was a quiet restful place. We had lots of time to play our favorite dutch card game, Klaverjas.

Christmas cactus

Red-Hot-Poker

Lantana

Ahhh. All these colorful blossoms were a pure delight.

Come evening, a guide led us through this underground tunnel built by the Engas which were a civilization older than the Incas. They used it as a way of escaping the Spanish invaders.

A 2-km trail led to a view of the Andean Condor canyon, the national bird of Ecuador.

Slavia Glandular Senna

Eucalyptus trees Klipp Dagga

Sections of the tunnel ran parallel to the lower trail.

Mimosa

Blackeyed Susan vine

The lower end of the tunnel. This tunnel wasn't discovered till about 25 years ago when the owner of the resort went for a walk and suddenly his dog disappeared. Clearing the rubble, he found the dog in this cavern.

Hibiscus

Shrub Balsam

Lily

Kapok tree, Cieba

Great Thrush Bottlebrush

The restaurant.

The games room. Loved the decor.

Eared dove

Christine and animals. They're never far apart.

Looking towards Quito.

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Day 3, Jan 9:

Tour to Cayambe-Coca National Park & Hotsprings

The scenic drive to the hotsprings (thankfully farther away from Quito) was a steady climb. At the pass we hit 4070m!

Case & I did this 4 km hike along a river that first led us down a road, along a vegetable garden.

To the right is the Paper tree.

A baboo branch.

Floripontio Raspberry vine

Elderberry Bromelia

Loranthaceae are a parasite vine

Humming bird

Heading back on the opposite side of the river.

video

Arizona Beggar-ticks Triana

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The following photos are of planted flowers.

Falling Stars

Lily-of-the-Nile / Calla Lily / Fuchia

The bears in Ecuador are smaller and have white faces.

The lowest level of the hotsprings.

The second level.

Cape Rain-daisy

And the third level. At each cluster of pools, was one small tub with ice-cold water. For the first time in my life, I plunged into one after getting myself real hot.

We let our taxi driver decide where to have lunch. This was a remote place with a pond full of trout.

It was a perfect place to eat, supporting the locals and getting a good taste of their culture.

The fish couldn't have been any fresher. Paired with a mushroom sauce, it was delicious.

More paper trees.

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Day 4, Jan. 10

The agency we booked with, Natural Habitat, had to relocate our hotel due to the old city location being too close to the parliament buildings and therefor being unsafe.

Instead we got this state of the art Go Hotel high above the valley, in the outskirts of Quito.

The restaurant was on the top 17th floor an offered quite the view.

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Day 5, Jan 11:

From this day on, Natural Habitat took over. They gave us the scheduled tour of the old city but we were not able to see the parliament buildings that were surrounded by the military. The oldest colonial part of Quito (1534-1822) lies in the 72x14km long valley. The city has a population of 2.8 million whereas the whole of Ecuador is 18 million. In the second half of the 14th century, when the Incas knew the Spanish were approaching from the south, they moved their most precious items out and then burnt the whole city.

This National Basilica is quite new.

This historic structure was shipped in pieces from Belgium and built on the site of an old market place.

The Basilica and Convent of San Francisco is the oldest and most significant religious site in Ecuador. After 100 years, construction was completed in 1645. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. In 1978 Quito was the first city to become a UNESCO site.

The wealthy and high-ranking peoples' gravestones were put on the wall so they could be more obviously seen.

video

Views from the Fransisco town square. The 45m high statue of the Virgin Mary sits high on Panecillo Hill, overlooking old town Quito.

A presentation of local chocolate came with sample tasting of about four different flavors and ended with hot chocolate coupled with melt-in-your-mouth brownies. They were the best I've ever tasted! Ecuador produces over 300,000 tons of coacoa annually. They grow it in the coastal and Amazon regions often growing coffee, coacoa and grapes together as their roots pick up flavors from one another. Ecuador is the largest exporter of bananas in the world. They also export mainly coacoa, coffee, fish & shrimp, roses and crude oil.

Group shot, left to right: Christine & Allan Atsma (our long-time friends), Vera, Chris, Jane, Steve & Ann, Ted & Lianne, Donna & Donna, Richard & Michelle, Case & I. Missing was Steve who was from England. Other than him and us 4 Canadians, the rest of our group were from the US.

The Inglesia de la Compania de Jesus was amazing! The exterior was built with grey volcanic stone.

This temple was built by prominent Jesuits from 1605-1765. Every square inch of the interior was carved and gilded with 23 carat gold leaf! Taking photos was not permitted so I took this one of the left third of the temple from the entrance.

This photo was taken from the internet of the center of the temple.

Plaza Grande

This monument represents Ecuador's decade long struggle for independence from Spain. The lion (Spain) has a fatal spear wound in it's side and is looking with fear at the condor (Ecuador) which is holding the chains it has just removed.

We were not supposed to leave our hotel. But Case felt confined so we walked 250m to an Italian restuarant for dinner. The dark streets were deserted except for heavily armed military guards on the corners of every block (we had good views from our room on the 12th floor). The large restaurant was utterly empty other than two men who came later.

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Day 6, Jan 12: We heaved a big sigh of relief as the plane left Quito airport and flew to the Galapagos Islands, landing in Baltra where the zodiacs transported us to the Petrel. We were now 1370km away from Ecuador and its political unrest and had entered into a magical world where the abundant wildlife was not threatened by humans and could thrive in their natural habitat.

To be continued in the Galapagos blog...