Mother-Daughter trip to Galapagos and Ecuador

We woke this morning to a delicious home-cooked meal and then went to view the Quilotoa Volcano and Lagoon. The water was a crazy blue color, and perfectly reflected the surrounding mountains. We hiked down about half way, and then decided that we better not go all the way, since we had to hike back up and we were still feeling the effects of the …

After breakfast, we all drove up the canyon towards the jungle. We rode a cable car across the incredibly high gorge over a waterfall, then hiked down to another waterfall. It was raining again, but we weren’t going to let that stop us! Late in the morning, Marcelo decided we better head back to Quito to try to beat some of the traffic. What …

This morning we woke and met our guide Gustavo and headed to north towards Otavalo. He took us to the mitad del mundo on the way. We also went to several smaller towns, each with its own specialty. There was the biscuit town, where they make biscuits, the leather town, and the weaving town. I of course don’t remember the names of any of …

Today we went to the market where we spent way too much money on gifts for our family, friends, and of course, ourselves. It was very fun to barter with the people in the market, and to see all the hand-made commodities. Our guide was there to explain the different types of goods, and to ask the questions that we didn’t even think to ask. We …

Today we drove to Bellavista with a stop at the middle of the world monument. Unfortunately the museum was closed but we took some fun pictures on the equator before heading into the cloudforest. Bellavista lodge is beautiful, and we got to take a fun hike with one of the guides to learn more about the forest. There were so many hummingbirds, and …

After a very relaxing morning at Bellavista (I finally finished my book in the hammock!), we came back to Quito. A friend of Betty's came to pick us up and we spent the evening with Betty and her family, as well as the others from our office. We had a great dinner, danced some salsa and had fun conversations in both English and Spanish. After …

Today we had to say goodbye to Quito, Ecuador and Betty, our most wonderful host. I just hope that I will be able to return someday to see all the parts of the country I had missed!