Slow Travel in Ecuador – 3 Days – 3 Sites

From the Peru-Ecuador border of Huaquillas to Guayaquil it is a couple of hours’ drive; I reckon the distance is some 250 kilometers. I had checked my guidebooks and it seemed that the first part of our travels in Ecuador wouldn’t be the most interesting.

I was wrong.

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Bathing in Luxury at the Hotel Casa Gangotena in Quito

I was looking out over the Mediterranean dotted with a couple of sailing boats. Low rolling hills line the horizon. The image was framed by Corinthian columns covered in flowering vines. I felt as if I was on vacation in Greece, Italy, or Spain.

Did that make sense, with my being 9,350 feet above sea level, in Quito, Ecuador’s capital?

Not really.

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Watching Wild and Captive Condors in Ecuador, at Hacienda Zuleta

It was almost like a dance, seven rambunctious Andean Condors hopping around chunks of mule and calf. On other days the carrion might be alpaca, sheep, or rabbit. Males generally have the first go but Awu is a female that is able to stand up for herself and makes sure she gets the piece she wants to have.

When two condors wanted the same piece they each tore on a side of it as if it were a game of tug-of-war.

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Snorkeling in the Galápagos Islands – Ecuador

I feel as if I’m swimming in my grandmother’s tropical fish aquarium; the fish have the same bright colors, the same vertical shapes. All around me are yellow-purple-striped king angelfish, ivory-colored barber fish, and black stripe and deep-blue surgeonfish.

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A Butterfly in Ecuador’s Amazon Rainforest

“Happiness is like a butterfly. If you chase it and chase it directly, it will elude you, but if you sit quietly and busy yourself with other things, it will come and light upon your shoulder.”
~Old Chinese Proverb

What’s so special about a butterfly, you may ask.

Well, I got a visit from one who cleaned my keyboard.

Seriously.

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How Can Birds in Ecuador Remind You of the Airlift in Berlin?

I can’t remember the name of the book but it was a fiction novel about Germany right after the war. In high school, World War II had been a major topic in our history classes so I thought I knew quite a bit about it.

However, when reading this novel a couple of years later, it was the first time I heard about the Airlift in Berlin.

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What Makes a Sunset so Special? – The Mashpi Eco Lodge

“You know what would be a great idea?” Coen asked as we moved up the last steps of the stairs that brought us to a 30-meter-high watchtower.

“What?” David, our guide, asked.

“To serve champagne upstairs. Wouldn’t that be a fantastic surprise?”

David didn’t respond and we continued our way up.

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