“Simplicity and slowness are core components of virtually all the best adventures. Walking is
~Alastair Humphreys
“What do you mean, nobody sells food? We need a meal! We’re hungry,” I gasp.
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.
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.
Hexagonal tiles of salt stretch to the horizon hemmed in by bluish mountains. The crunching of salt crystals beneath my feet sounds like stepping on fresh snow. I’m encompassed by total silence in an otherworldly spectacle that is largely devoid of life.
Salar de Uyuni is beyond magic!
“If you turn around you will see the entire row of pyramids,” Alice said. I pulled lightly on the reins and Esthela immediately reacted, at which I quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
Truth be said, I was not so sure that she would listen to me.
Wherever we look we see white. It looks like a world of fresh snow that has not yet been disturbed by footsteps. The silence is intense. When we step out of the Land Cruiser there is nothing except the crunching of salt crystals beneath our shoes.
We are at Salar de Uyuni!
“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.
A couple of weeks ago, Fernando Polanco Plaza invited us to Hacienda Zuleta, his family farmstead in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador.
We were in for a treat.
“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.
For weeks we had been traveling through the Amazon Forest in Brazil. Some areas consist of virgin forest, but large parts have made way for cattle ranching. The region is known as the Arc of Deforestation.
We were ready to see some wildlife again.
Then we met Paulo…
In 2013, the Cristalino Jungle Lodge was selected as one of National Geographic Traveler magazine’s 25 Best Ecolodges.
Time to check it out!
Throughout our more-than-10-year
While we love the sightseeing and roaming-the-countryside aspect of traveling, our warmest memories are always related to people.
As happened in São Paulo
I sit on the landing stage. The moon glistens on the Suriname River and the rainforest across the river has become a black wall. Croaking frogs and chirping crickets penetrate the silence of the night.
I have traveled deep into the Surinamese rainforest.
At 6 am, the sun is rising rapidly above the horizon yet not burning fiercely as it will in a couple of hours. I stroll over the sandy plain dotted with shrubs that feed the local horses and donkeys. Behind me is the village of Jericoacoara, along Brazil’s northeast coast. In front of me are only dunes.
They attract like a magnet.
I am lying stretched out on a wooden bed covered with a brightly striped bath towel. The sun prickles my skin and a breeze caresses my body, preventing me from overheating.
Note to self: next time slather myself in sun lotion before lying down.