It's Sunday and we just had to get out of town so we hired a driver to take us to Termas de Papallacta for the day. It's touted as Ecuador's most luxurious hot springs. To get there we passed through some cool little towns and somewhere along the way got a view of 5,897 meter (19,347 ft) Cotapaxi, too--one of the highest active volcanoes in the world.The drive over the pass was really lovely even though the mountains were shrouded in uncompromising c...

For a few hours early Saturday mornings you can catch the cacophony of the animal market, but come before breakfast because it's all over by 9. Indigenous living in nearby pueblos bring for barter their goats, chicks, hens, piglets, lambs, llamas--you name it. It's a squashed together melee. I elbowed my way in by following on the heels of a bag of guinea pigs. At first it's just noise and motion, but as I stood there surrounded, a sort of organizati...

When I see a mountain sneak peaking out from the clouds I absolutely squeal, I'm so excited. I don't know if any of you do or not, but if you do, you may enjoy sharing the view out my window. Our flights were from Cusco to Lima, then another to Guayaquil and the last one to Quito. The one from Guayaquil to Quito flew over the spine of the Andes mountains we'd not been able to see for 2 1/2 months.That's right. We've been here almost 3 months ...

So we're enjoying the evening on the Mandala's beautiful veranda--soft ocean breezes, pounding waves, flaming sunset--you know the usual, and we're trying to decide what to do next. We'd made a reservation in a bigger city north of here called Manta thinking we'd keep enjoying this heavenly sunshine for a few more days before returning to cold, high Quito and heading home when we about face...again.We're off to Peru. Peru was beyond our b...

We met a fun couple from Canada here at the Mandala and after spending the day sharing travel stories, they decided they'd join us on our boat ride to Isla Salango for a swim and some snorkeling.Our day started with a 25 cent bus ride south to a neighboring fishing village called Salango, a place Bob and I had been with Ligia and Sook our first week here. But this time we found a fisherman eager to take tourists out to the island and what a trip.It's quit...