I am just now wrapping up a visit to Ecuador, prompted by my daughter's idea, hatched this Spring, to spend a month in Spanish Immersion volunteering for an orphanage in Cuenca, Ecuador. Having traveled alone to foreign lands of varied tongues in my own teen years, I wanted to witness the experience of her excitement. Maybe it was motivated by paternal instinct; maybe it was motivated by some faint hope of reliving that wonder year in 1979. Maybe both.
After saying our goodbyes a few hours after the above photo was taken (there are a lot of pictures of my extended arm in this batch), Ellen cabbing to the Panamerican Terminal for a 10-hour bus ride to Cuenca, I hired a driver to take me to Papagayo, about an hour south and towards the "Avenue of the Volcanoes" (a 200-mile stretch of active and inactive volcanoes in the Andes). Amazingly, at the end of this 1 km bumpy dirt road, there was a lodge, complete with WiFi (although lacking in heat and sometimes hot water). Spent the night there and headed to Cotopaxi the next day, the tallest active volcano in the world.
We hiked to the glacier (at 5020m, or 16,060 ft), had lunch, and took mountain bikes 14 km down the bumpy dirt road to the lake below. Note my riding companion, Jeremy (architect from San Francisco), had large fingers.
At the glacier.
At the bottom of the volcano.
Wild horses (escaped from ranches years ago and bred in the wild)
Next day, after another night in the lodge, our little group (now up to 20, from 8 the day before) went to Saquisili (a local Andean village) and then on to the Quilatoa volcano, the crater of which formed a lake. We hiked down the inside of the crater (around 3800 m, perhaps 11,000 feet) to the lake (maybe 3300 m), took photos of some Alpacas, and rode mules back out of the crater. The live animal market at Saquisili. That large hog was available for the taking for US$180. Prolly wouldn't fit in the overhead bin.
Hiking down the inside of the crater.
At the bottom, getting some local help with my mule.
The Alpacas.
