Long Overdue Pic Post.....
Sep. 17th, 2010 01:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cynchickFrom my trip to Ecuador in August!
This was my second visit, and this time we stayed for 18 days, which seems like a lot of time but we still didn't get to go everywhere we wanted. There were over 1700 pictures to go through, most of them family and little things no one cares about except the people who were there. So I picked out what I wanted to include here that sum up the coolest things about the country.
The best thing about Ecuador: the gorgeous rolling green landscape and colonial Spanish architecture.
The worst thing about Ecuador: that same mountainous terrain that makes it take forever to get anywhere, and the smog in cities due to nonexistent emission regulations.
So on with the show! These have been heavily downsized to fit in the post, so they might be a little fuzzy.
Taken from the second story terrace at the family home. For the first week we stayed with friends and family in the country, where the roosters wake you up at the crack of dawn and the water stops running after 10pm. It's pretty out there, but very country. Fortunately a large town is only a short bus ride away. The bus ride itself isn't always fun, because they pack those things full and I mean FULL - sometimes you have to stand for the whole trip, smashed up against some random person.
Most of Ecuador is high in the Andes Mts and is full of volcanoes. Some of that beautiful landscape:
Pics above are of the city of Ibarra taken from a viewpoint atop one of the surrounding mountains. They don't accurately describe what its really like from up there.
At such high elevation (7-13k ft) the clouds are very low and fast moving. When they roll over the mountains they create these beautiful shadows like the pic above.
A must-do when visiting Ecuador is the town of Otavalo, which is home to the one of the largest outdoor markets in the world. The ancient Incans, and later their descendants the Quechwa, have congregated here for hundreds of years to sell their goods. On the weekends the entire town is a market.
The day was hot, the streets were hella crowded, and I got a sunburn in the shape of my purse strap, but it was a great time:
Some of the wood & stone crafts. They make beautiful carvings out of Andean jade.
I thought these wooden masks would be amusing to all you Narutards. XD
Next we were off to the capital of Quito. Another must-do when in Ecuador is the Mitad del Mundo, which means middle of the world. Ecuador, as the name implies, is right on the equator. At the park you can do all sorts of fun experiments dealing with the magnetism of the hemispheres. And yes, toilets do flush the other way on the south side. When you're directly on the equator, the water goes straight down.XD
Quito is a great city, and is very cosmopolitan and hip. Our hostel was in Plaza Foch, which is the trendiest part of the city, where younger locals come to meet the tourists and party on the streets almost every night. Great for socializing, bad if you like going to sleep early.
The second pic was taken in the foyer of a very cool (and comparatively expensive) restaurant called Boca del Lobo, which we'd actually seen before on a TV travel show.
But there is also Old Town, which is full of beautiful Spanish colonial buildings and landmarks:
At night they light all of these buildings up, which is really pretty.
From Quito we went to a sustainable ecolodge in the mountain cloud forest for some nature and relaxation. All of the food was grown on site and they ran their own hydroelectric power. These were the cabins:
There were butterflies everywhere. This one was inside our cabin.
We had our own personal Amazonian guide to take us hiking on nature trails, birdwatching, and best of all, zip-lines across the canopy. It was a very zen-like place, and we wished we could have stayed longer.
For the last leg of our trip we traveled down to the beach. The bus ride winding down through the mountains took eight freakin hours. We spent the time watching Fast and Furious; Tokyo Drift and other cinematic gems in Spanish dub and listening to music on our phones. We got there pretty late at night, and this was the view from our hotel room when we got up in the morning:
The beauty of it? It was only a $79 room. Try finding a beachfront room in the US for that. And when the sun came out; gorgeous:
However the equatorial sun is no joke. They sell sunscreen there up to SPF 90, and you need it if you have fair Irish skin like me. XD
Of course one of the best things about traveling anywhere is trying different food. Ecuador has some really great (and not so great) grub:
Gigantic seafood paella and ceviche at the coast, fresh as it can possibly be. The restaurant was beachfront, the shore only a couple hundred feet away. While we were eating some mariachis came over and sang to us.
The best and biggest sundae I've ever had, in Quito:
Fresh blackberry and vanilla ice cream, and when I managed to get through the 3 huge scoops, there was a ton of fresh strawberries, banana, and pineapple at the bottom. Somehow I managed to eat the whole thing!
And finally, cui. Cui (guinea pig) is the national delicacy, which I didn't get to try on my first trip. They are raised as food there, not pets, and since I have no love for guinea pigs and I try not to turn my nose up at cultural traditions, I wanted to try one. Not very pretty, but not bad. They taste like a really greasy version of wild fowl, kind of like game hen.
Other random cool stuff:
You can buy fresh fruit and street food everywhere. Its cheap and surprisingly good.
Beer. Yes that's a one liter coke bottle, and yes the beer is almost the same size. It's the only size it comes in actually, and it's only $0.80! Pretty good too. I certainly drank a lot of it. XD
Many bathrooms don't have toilet paper in the stalls. Sometimes, like in this nice clean mall restroom, its in a dispenser near the sinks like the paper towels. In the not so nice ones, there might not be any at all. Or seat covers. Often there is some enterprising individual outside who will sell you a handful of TP for 10-25 cents. But its always a good idea to carry your own.
We stopped at a conservation center which was kind of like a mini zoo. It was a hot day and we had popsicles, which won us lots of love from the monkeys there. Here is one licking my finger. XDD
This was my second visit, and this time we stayed for 18 days, which seems like a lot of time but we still didn't get to go everywhere we wanted. There were over 1700 pictures to go through, most of them family and little things no one cares about except the people who were there. So I picked out what I wanted to include here that sum up the coolest things about the country.
The best thing about Ecuador: the gorgeous rolling green landscape and colonial Spanish architecture.
The worst thing about Ecuador: that same mountainous terrain that makes it take forever to get anywhere, and the smog in cities due to nonexistent emission regulations.
So on with the show! These have been heavily downsized to fit in the post, so they might be a little fuzzy.
Taken from the second story terrace at the family home. For the first week we stayed with friends and family in the country, where the roosters wake you up at the crack of dawn and the water stops running after 10pm. It's pretty out there, but very country. Fortunately a large town is only a short bus ride away. The bus ride itself isn't always fun, because they pack those things full and I mean FULL - sometimes you have to stand for the whole trip, smashed up against some random person.
Most of Ecuador is high in the Andes Mts and is full of volcanoes. Some of that beautiful landscape:
Pics above are of the city of Ibarra taken from a viewpoint atop one of the surrounding mountains. They don't accurately describe what its really like from up there.
At such high elevation (7-13k ft) the clouds are very low and fast moving. When they roll over the mountains they create these beautiful shadows like the pic above.
A must-do when visiting Ecuador is the town of Otavalo, which is home to the one of the largest outdoor markets in the world. The ancient Incans, and later their descendants the Quechwa, have congregated here for hundreds of years to sell their goods. On the weekends the entire town is a market.
The day was hot, the streets were hella crowded, and I got a sunburn in the shape of my purse strap, but it was a great time:
Some of the wood & stone crafts. They make beautiful carvings out of Andean jade.
I thought these wooden masks would be amusing to all you Narutards. XD
Next we were off to the capital of Quito. Another must-do when in Ecuador is the Mitad del Mundo, which means middle of the world. Ecuador, as the name implies, is right on the equator. At the park you can do all sorts of fun experiments dealing with the magnetism of the hemispheres. And yes, toilets do flush the other way on the south side. When you're directly on the equator, the water goes straight down.XD
Quito is a great city, and is very cosmopolitan and hip. Our hostel was in Plaza Foch, which is the trendiest part of the city, where younger locals come to meet the tourists and party on the streets almost every night. Great for socializing, bad if you like going to sleep early.
The second pic was taken in the foyer of a very cool (and comparatively expensive) restaurant called Boca del Lobo, which we'd actually seen before on a TV travel show.
But there is also Old Town, which is full of beautiful Spanish colonial buildings and landmarks:
At night they light all of these buildings up, which is really pretty.
From Quito we went to a sustainable ecolodge in the mountain cloud forest for some nature and relaxation. All of the food was grown on site and they ran their own hydroelectric power. These were the cabins:
There were butterflies everywhere. This one was inside our cabin.
We had our own personal Amazonian guide to take us hiking on nature trails, birdwatching, and best of all, zip-lines across the canopy. It was a very zen-like place, and we wished we could have stayed longer.
For the last leg of our trip we traveled down to the beach. The bus ride winding down through the mountains took eight freakin hours. We spent the time watching Fast and Furious; Tokyo Drift and other cinematic gems in Spanish dub and listening to music on our phones. We got there pretty late at night, and this was the view from our hotel room when we got up in the morning:
The beauty of it? It was only a $79 room. Try finding a beachfront room in the US for that. And when the sun came out; gorgeous:
However the equatorial sun is no joke. They sell sunscreen there up to SPF 90, and you need it if you have fair Irish skin like me. XD
Of course one of the best things about traveling anywhere is trying different food. Ecuador has some really great (and not so great) grub:
Gigantic seafood paella and ceviche at the coast, fresh as it can possibly be. The restaurant was beachfront, the shore only a couple hundred feet away. While we were eating some mariachis came over and sang to us.
The best and biggest sundae I've ever had, in Quito:
Fresh blackberry and vanilla ice cream, and when I managed to get through the 3 huge scoops, there was a ton of fresh strawberries, banana, and pineapple at the bottom. Somehow I managed to eat the whole thing!
And finally, cui. Cui (guinea pig) is the national delicacy, which I didn't get to try on my first trip. They are raised as food there, not pets, and since I have no love for guinea pigs and I try not to turn my nose up at cultural traditions, I wanted to try one. Not very pretty, but not bad. They taste like a really greasy version of wild fowl, kind of like game hen.
Other random cool stuff:
You can buy fresh fruit and street food everywhere. Its cheap and surprisingly good.
Beer. Yes that's a one liter coke bottle, and yes the beer is almost the same size. It's the only size it comes in actually, and it's only $0.80! Pretty good too. I certainly drank a lot of it. XD
Many bathrooms don't have toilet paper in the stalls. Sometimes, like in this nice clean mall restroom, its in a dispenser near the sinks like the paper towels. In the not so nice ones, there might not be any at all. Or seat covers. Often there is some enterprising individual outside who will sell you a handful of TP for 10-25 cents. But its always a good idea to carry your own.
We stopped at a conservation center which was kind of like a mini zoo. It was a hot day and we had popsicles, which won us lots of love from the monkeys there. Here is one licking my finger. XDD
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no subject
Date: 2010-09-17 10:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-18 05:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-18 12:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-18 05:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-19 07:10 pm (UTC)That sundae does look delicious, haha! And I love those masks-- they're so colorful!
So you have family there? That's really cool! Or at least you stayed with a family? Anyway, that's cool that you got to touch base with locals in that way.
Ah, and being serenaded by those guys must have been the perfect touch!
Super cute monkeys!
You really got to go to different places, from the markets to the wilderness. VERY cool! Did you learn a lot on the trip? I always learn a lot from all of the old buildings in places like this. (I've not been to South America, but I'm thinking in Europe there's all those old buildings like the Spanish ones you mentioned-- always steeped in history!)
Funnily enough, my mom is in Peru right now! She is a professor of cultural anthropology with her focus on the Incas, so she goes to South America a lot. She actually published a book about Quito!
no subject
Date: 2010-09-21 12:41 am (UTC)The first time we went we didn't have a lot of money, so this time we really wanted to do some cool things and see different areas. He lived there from age 3-15 but even he hadnt been to some of the places.
Thats awesome about your mom, I remember you mentioning that in spanish in my pre-trip post. I would love to have a job that takes me all over the world. I think the best job ever would be to be a travel journalist. XD
no subject
Date: 2010-09-21 09:00 pm (UTC)I know what you mean about the difference in experience when you go with locals. That was one of the biggest differences between my family trip to Germany in '07 and the one we took to Ireland this summer-- Germany was for my great uncle's wedding anniversary, so we were living with them in their German town. My grandma was also with us, and she came to America from Germany when she was eighteen or nineteen. It was a lot different than in Ireland, where we didn't have any relatives (although I wasn't complaining, because it meant we got to do things on OUR schedule, not my great aunt Renate's, and I am also not complaining one bit about the plethora of incredible B&B's in Ireland! haha!).
Yep, my mom has a great job! She was really lucky when she was younger too, because her father was a professor at Cornell and he traveled ALL THE TIME, and his family got to go with him! (Unlike when my mom travels. xD) He had his PhD in Agricultural Engineering, and he focused on ag development in third world countries, so they got to travel all over the world with him-- like in 4th grade my mom lived in the Philippines for a year, and her junior year of high school they lived in Peru. Very lucky!
How is your Spanish? I bet you brushed up on it a lot while in Ecuador! I remember you saying it was pretty rusty before.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-26 05:44 pm (UTC)My Spanish isn't as good as it used to be, but nothing like being thrown in the deep end of the pool to remember how to swim. XD I was able to understand almost everything said to me, and when I didn't it was usually because it was an Indian word.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-26 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-02 06:32 pm (UTC)Everyone asks why Sweden, since no one knows much about it. Its highly underrated. I became interested in the Scandinavian countries when I saw a statistics chart showing things like life expectancy, quality of life, education, class division, etc. And the Scandinavian countries were consistently in the top 3 or 5 (The US was usually midway, or toward the bottom. Trufax). So I started looking more closely. Norway is currently listed as the best country to live in, but Sweden is close behind and is ranked as best country for women to live because of their absolute 100% gender equality.
The notion that we have gender equality in the US is a clever lie. In Sweden women are paid equally, no jobs are barred from them including military. Children go through anti-sexism awareness training in kindergarten, where boys are encouraged to play with dolls and girls to play with trucks etc, which teaches them to appreciate "what girls do" and "what boys do" as equal. When the princess of Sweden recently got married, there was huge public outcry because she planned to have her father give her away. The outcry was because the tradition symbolizes the ownership of the woman by her father, who gives her as property to the husband. Typical marriage in Sweden is both bride and groom walking down the aisle together, to symbolize their side by side journey through life as equal partners. When you have a baby in Sweden, you get 13 MONTHS mandatory paid leave, which is split between the mother and father so both parents have equal baby-duty as well as interaction in their early development. Here its 6 weeks for women. There is paternity leave, but they make it a big hassle to get so as to discourage men from doing it.
Kids are also taught sex ed starting in 3rd grade, so that by the time they reach the age where they want to have sex, they are well informed and mentally prepared. The result is that kids actually wait longer to have sex, and marry and have kids later too. There literally is no word for teen pregnancy in their language because its almost unheard of, I suppose if it happens they use English. Which by the way, everyone under 60 speaks fluently. Everyone.
Sweden is a social democracy, which means they encourage operation of a free market, but instead of collecting private capital, the wealth is redistributed publicly. So they have free healthcare, free education, and an outstanding social welfare system. So no one is left to struggle and live in poverty. They've been a neutral country since WWII, and don't waste lives and money fighting wars around the world.
Long list is long, but I did my research. And for superficial reasons, Stockholm is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. XD
no subject
Date: 2010-09-19 10:13 pm (UTC)<3!!
no subject
Date: 2010-09-21 12:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-21 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-01 06:37 pm (UTC)