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So my parent’s came to visit a while back. It was a great trip. We did a grand tour of Ecuador and visited Quito, the lowlands, the highlands and the cloud forest. We took maybe a total of 800 or more photos together and these are just a small selection, and probably poorly selected at that, for your viewing pleasure.

Here we are at dinner at Don Colon. Great view of the city, including nicely lit up 450 year old churches.

So the first day there we were walking around the historic center of Quito checking out all the wonderful architecture and history (sorry no photos of that, internet is too slow) and noticed lots of cops with gas masks, riot gear etc… near the presidential palace. I sort of explained the tenuous political situation in Ecuador and how protests are super common. And of course said we should be careful. Well, a little later on we came across more cops ready to go and then eventually a group of protesters. We checked it out for a bit and it didn’t seem too bad. Nevertheless, I suggested we leave as its not the best place to be. Well my dad wanted to keep watching to see what would happened. Well, it happened, we got tear gassed! Not us specifically, but we were upwind of it and were certainly crying and had a hard time breathing. We can all attest that yes, tear gas works, effectively.

Standard sized fire hydrant. Im not even sure its big enough for a dog to piss on.

Here is a shot of the cabins at Napo Wildlife Center on Anangucocha. Napo Wildlife Center is an ecotourism lodge that is 100% owned and operated (and 100% of profits go to) by the Anangu Quichuan community. It is a wonderful piece of land that is teeming with wildlife. They still have many of the animals that have been driven to near extinction and thus are hard to encounter in other regions of the amazon basin such as giant river otters (which we saw!!!!!!), pink river dolphins, etc… We had great luck and saw lots and lots of wildlife. See my next post for some pics.

Here we are trying to find the Purplish Jacamar, a beautiful bird we never found. Also my moms favorite picture, I think.

Giant Ceiba tree.

Here are some Grubs that were taken out of a fallen palm tree not 5 minutes before this picture. And we ate them not 2 hours later. Pretty tasty. Sixto, our native guide, spotted a fallen palm tree on a canoe trip we were taking that appeared to be at the right rottenness to be harboring beetle larvae. So he stopped the canoe, jumped on the tree barefoot and started hacking away with his trusty mini-machete always hanging on his belt at the ready. And he was right, they were there. Oh and it should be noted too that my mom ate the first one. We didnt get a photo but luckily there was a Latin American travel channel based out of Miami there filming a segment on the lodge and they filmed it. So you may still get to see it someday.

Me and Sixto, our Quichuan guide talking about shamans, conservation and the history of the lodge. He was amazing.

Here is a shot of one of the Papallacta hotsprings outside our door. After the lowlands and on our way to the cloud forest we made a stop in the “paramo,” sub-alpine habitat, to soak in some natural hot springs. It was amazing and very relaxing.

Next stop was Yanayacu. Probably the most relaxing part of the trip, although for some of us that meant working in the greenhouse.

We did a whole lot on this trip and it was pretty much non-stop. But most of all we ate a whole lot of good food. I had to throw this picture in here because my mom took a picture of every single meal I think.

Thanks for visiting, it was a fun trip!

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