The next leg of our exciting saga has begun and we've now officially set foot on six continents! Getting to Ecuador was both fun and tiring.

We left L.A. at 11:00 p.m. and arrived in Miami four hours later, just in time for sunrise. We might have squeezed in a maximum of 2 hours of questionable quality sleep. Still, we were jazzed about having a 13 hour layover which allowed us to rent a car to see Miami for the day. Jeff lived there for 5 months during his college years, so he wanted to show me some of his favorite spots. We checked out Key Biscayne and got a great view from the top of the light house. Then we headed to South Beach for a delicious Cuban style lunch and walked around a bit. We couldn't have asked for better weather! The only down-side to our little day trip was that due to my lack of sleep, every time I sat in the car I fell asleep almost immediately…luckily Jeff didn't have that problem, haha!

Our next night flight was another short 4 hours down to Quito, which didn't help our sleep situation. By the time we checked into our hostel it was nearly 1:30 a.m. We were both exhausted, yet for some reason I had a hard time falling asleep. I'm blaming it on the altitude (Quito is at about 10,000ft). Morning came much too soon for my tastes since we had to check out early and board a bus headed to Otavalo. Of course, I slept on and off most of the way there and even Jeff succumbed to some bouncy shut-eye. After being in transit for almost 48 hours and only garnering maybe 6 hours of good sleep, the first thing we did was take a nap!

At this point, I'm feeling a little guilty about the fact that we've been in Ecuador for a whole day now and haven't stepped outside any further than it takes to get a taxi! However, as I write this, I'm sitting next an open window that overlooks our hotel courtyard and being serenaded by an Ecuadorian folklórico band! Not a bad way to get a first taste of Ecuador! And after some good sleep tonight, I'm sure we'll be energized and ready to hit the famous Otavalo markets tomorrow. Buenos noches y dulces sueños!