Reflecting on our time in Ecuador

This is our last week in Ecuador. Thought we would have to find our way to Jim's on our own but, there he was at the airport, with a sign saying "Shane & Mary" and a big grin on his face. They got home a day early from their bike trip. So nice to be home! Arriving from sea level to Quito was a bit of a challenge especially with the head cold I'm fighting. So, fighting a cold as well as the effects of high altitude what would you choose to do on your ...

Face to face with sea lions, floating with sea turtles or watching the fascinating courtship antics of Blue Footed Boobies, Magnificent Frigate birds and those nasty looking marine iguanas... this has been a fascinating 7 days on the Galapagos Islands.Arriving at the airport our first glimpse of wildlife was a land iguana wandering through the baggage claim area. The road to town took us past fields with huge tortoises chowing down on lunch. Bright red crabs ...

There's more to this entry than just the killer caterpillar and going ass over tea kettle in the Ansu River. I have to start at the beginning. Gold Mining on a tributary of the Amazon. Dragging a dredge in the back of the truck over nasty roads ("just full of gold!!) past (more) dreaded Columbians we ended up on a small river that just had to be full of the shiny yellow stuff. Jim, Adam & Shane got right in there setting up the dredge basically vacuuming t...

November 8 - our first jungle day. We follow a small miners trail to the Jatunyacu River. Listening to Jim`s (many) stories made me slightly apprehensive about hiking to a dredge site run by Columbians. On our way we stopped to get a view of the river from a narrow foot bridge linking a village to the main road. Beautiful view of the jungle. The animal sounds are amazing! Then we`re off to the dense jungle First person we saw on the road apparently had a Me...