in some cases this is just a note to myself, thought it might be interesting to track my first solo trip (ie not related to work travel). so i arrived in quito yesterday through panama (panama looked really interesting from the air, might have to visit there also), about 8 hours of flying to get to the equator, overall slept most of the way, not …

day one-bike ride on the slopes of Pichincha Volcano, from quito we first met the rest of the group which included a group of five (Sara, Kelly, Christie, Tobin and Rob, all from the east coast except for Christie), Sarah and Josh. Josh was only spending three days with us and then he was off to explore the rest of ecuador including two volcano …

Back in the van for a three hour drive to the tachi river, this was quite a drive starting at 8000 feet and ending at 1000 feet what a change in temperature and vegetation. We started out at 60 degrees and ended up at 85 degrees. Anyway, we found our starting point on the tachi river (mostly a class 3 with two or three rapids rated at class 4), …

so getting back to the hotel very late on Wednesday evening, starved i broke down and went to the burger king next to the hotel, I am sorry but i was hungry it was raining, it was close (bad thing I would visit there two more times before the end of the trip, what can i say, weakness for burgers and fries american style, ie no corn anywhere to be …

so where, were we, oh yes, sitting high on top of a mountain, cold raining, sore, headache, but food on the way.....


after dinner, it was raining most of the night, it was dark, it was cold, it was wet, just everything you expect in the tropics of Ecuador, so the only thing to do, I was make my way back to the tent, crawl into a sleeping …

The last morning in Quito was spent walking around the financial district, which was like any in the US, including finding the IBM building which I tried to take a picture of, but they told me to go away. This walk lead me to an interesting group of motorcyclist that were on a 20 week journey from mexico city to the tip of south america and then …