Traveling in Ecuador

Last week I dusted off my passport and hopped on another plane. I flew south to Ecuador for the wedding of an amazing couple. It has been a whirlwind week of new sites, sounds, and experiences. I knew very little of Ecuador before I came. Here are a few of my observations: My Spanish is more than rusty. This was proven when I went to Burger King to indulge my craving for french fries and ended up with 2 #2 combo meals with some sort of fruit punch soda. Quito is on the equator, yet is just as cool as Alaskan summers (surprise, surprise!) I love watching the clouds play at the tops of the Andes mountains that surround the city. The Ecuadorians don't understand Japanese. Their national currency is the US dollar. Juan Valdez has coffee shops here,and I thought he was Colombian.

Today was my "be a tourist" day. I booked a day trip to the rainforest nearby. I was picked up at my hotel at 6:30am and driven 2 hours west to Bellevista lodge where we were treated to breakfast in the jungle treetops. Then we put on rubber boots and hiked into the jungle for 3 hours looking for birds, bugs, and plants with our guide. We splashed up a creek,scaling small waterfalls with ropes before coming to the big waterfall. Then it was quite a climb out of the jungle and back to the lodge for lunch. Humming birds were everywhere. It was such an amazing sound to have them diving around you. I spent most of the day with a family from Surrey, England. And was more than a bit jealous when they headed off to the treetop zip lines and I headed back to Quito. Next time....

Tomorrow is my day for shopping, packing and meeting some new friends.