Ecuador

I visited Ecuador for the first time in 1992, by accident. My intention was to spend one week under the sun of Venezuela. When I was ready to board the American Airlines Miami-Quito flight, I discovered that I had no visa stamped on my passport. Since AA failed to check it at boarding time in Austin, they were kind enough to offer to fly me to an alternative destination! I chose Ecuador and did not regret it. I wandered in Quito, met local people and visited the Amazonian forest, where for the first time ever, I experienced true solitude. That was long time ago and I have few memories left from that trip.

 

This time it was a lot different. I was better organized, traveled with company and had a full bag of photo gear with me. We visited in November 2015 and broke the itinerary into four parts: Quito and the northern highlands, the Galápagos islands, the Amazonian rain forest in the Huaorani region and the central Andean Highlands. We arrived in Quito, drove to Otavalo, flew to the Galápagos for four-day day island hopping, then returned to Quito to join Nana and Vassilis. We used cars, airplanes and boats to reach the Shiripuno river in the Oriente and spend four days with the Huaorani tribe, then flew back to Quito from Coca. We drove down to Cuenca, through Quilotoa, Baños, Riobamba, Guamote and Alausí and returned to Quito before going once more to Otavalo, to finally return back to Athens from Quito, all in 18 days.

Ecuador is a country of great diversity, scenic and cultural. traditional as it can get, but modern in many aspects. And it has wonderful people. True, it is sounds cliché, but I find people wonderful wherever I go, especially in the developing world and it does not hurt to repeat it. That is one of the main joys of traveling.

 

 

 

Here is complete list of the travelogues from this trip. Start reading here or click on any link to read the relevant post.

Travelogues