Barcelo Colon Miramar Spa & Casino Salinas

... some photos of town, ate tea and studied some spanish in my room before going to bed. Apart from the two other gringos on the bus, I didnt see any in town, probably not hard because i slept most of the day and only went out once, but still good to not see any yanks!<br><br>Saturday 26th September<br>Up at 5am due to the noise from the market. Music, animals and people going mental. I dont know why country people think its normal to be up this early, and to be making that much noise at ...

... metre destination.<br><br>After 30 kms we thought we had reached our 4000 metre destination and was looking forward to a nice 500 metre descent, however, it wasn't to be. There's something about communication towers and that mostly they are placed at the highest point in the area, that made me jump to the conclusion that we had arrived at the top. Wrong, we dropped for about 1.5 kms, then began climbing again. By this time, the farms had been replaced by ...

... cloud we had been seeing over the past 2 days, but that didn't mean getting to see Volcano Tungurahua, or should I say we did get a glimpse but slightly later. It was as we were sitting in a little park eating our cheese and jam sandwiches (I eat them separately, dave has them together) when I spotted the very top of the volcano, 'ooh look' I said, pointing at the volcano. A few minutes later the cloud was back and the view obscured again. dave ...

... can be deceiving. Cristofer seemed to have a chip on his shoulder; he never smiled, preferred to be away from everyone else, and whenever he was asked to do something, he would refuse. He got really sick one week (coughing, fever, chills). I saw him one day whimpering in his bed alone. Although he did not really seem to prefer my company, I decided to pat his back to help him fall asleep. I offered him some soup and put cool cloths on his head. He also sat on my lap, with a high ...

<br>We stayed in Guaranda for a few nights to access nearby Salinas and Volcan Chimborazo. Guaranda itself is nestled in a valley surrounded by trees including pines not infested by beetles (weird) and cultivated land. En route, you pass through some pretty high elevations and get to see very cool wild camelids, the vicuñas. <br><br>Our hotel itself was Skippy-size (who is actually pretty average in height in SA), and definitely not tall enough for me. It ...

... the world I have ever seen that is bigger. We had another short hour trek to the hut from the parking lot. Again, this hut was nice and included mattresses on the bunks. There was only one other climber at the hut that day, a young American girl. There were also two backpackers from Poland who were spending a few days at the hut but not climbing. The Chimborazo hut was set to be a new ...

... strong enough to hold us. Someone asked him to move the last time they were there because the ball was to weak to hold his 40,000 pound sailboat. Right behind the ball we chose were two other balls, one of which looked big enough to damage the boat, and the shore was only 100 yards away. If the mooring failed we would only have seconds to respond! Bill didn´t trust the mooring ball, so we slipped our bridle and motored away. I was just as happy to ...

... today. Even when there hasn´t been blue skies, it´s been warm and breezy and very refreshing! Today it´s sunny and beautiful and pretty hot. Another observation and recent change in Salinas is that there are stoplights now and the cars actually stop for the red lights! There are more paved roads also and Juan and I think the next step would be for the cars to stop at the crosswalks, but baby steps for now! I hope you can all ...

... operation and it doesn´t get any more hands on than here. The value of Ecuador as a travel destination can´t be overstated. Labor isn´t the only thing that´s cheap here. Ecuador does use the dollar as its´ currency, but that´s where the similarities end with U.S. pricing. Ecuador is cheap! Every time we´ve gone out to a local restaurant, we are amazed at our bill. Appetizers, entrees, dessert and a bottle of wine may run you around $20. We´ve found ...

... of our time fighting off local hustlers trying to sell us everything from pot, booze, seadoos and hotel rooms. If it was the summer, the place would be much livelier and it probably would be more fun, but after a few hours of exploring we decided to continue on to Montanita without staying. The hotel prices were just too much for what you were getting.