CasKaffeSu Mindo

... the waterfalls. Being the weekend there were LOTS of Ecuadorian tourists, who all gave us pitying looks as they drove past in cars, leaving us to taste their dirt. It was a longer walk than we anticipated (uphill as it always seems to be). Eventually - after a couple of hours - one guy stopped and insisted on giving us a lift the rest of the way. Unfortunately he took us past the place we wanted to stop and dropped us much further away. Visited the ...

... difference, as she has demonstrated. She built a lodge on her property to accommodate birders and her volunteers. When we arrived, we thought we would be joining a group of mist netters, but we were the only volunteers there, so we had to work independently. It was a steep learning curve for me. the handling of the birds was fine, but extraction is a whole new ball game. This is also the first time we have handled tiny hummingbirds; the poor things ...

... is a world heritage site so has got lots of money from the UN to do it up. There are 7 AMAZING churches that i almost couldnt believe were real. We then went down two blocks of old cobble roads lined with very nice shops and cafes and bars. Aparently it all use to be all hookers and **** but now has been cleaned up. We had this alcoholic hot corn drink, it was very odd. We then got our $1.5 taxi home. :D good night!

... stopped off at a little corn restaurant (god they love their corn) I had a bowl of corn kernels with chilli mayonnaise. Delicious.

The next morning, while nursing mighty hangovers, Alex and I went on the old town city tour. Milli has mentioned what we saw so I won’t go into it. We did have the managing director of the travel agency downstairs come along as our security guard for the day, which was unnecessary I thought but some of the other people on the tours brought along ...

... now to put the rest of our deposit for our galapagos trip. We found a deal and are going to go to GALAPAGOS!!!! yay! We´re so excited. Can´t wait to snorkel & see the wildlife there. This trip has been so much about wildlife so far.. there really are some amazing creatures here. The ATM´s only let you take out small amounts per day, so it is taking us forever to pay the travel agency. Anyways, until next time - miss everyone. Love Michelle & Russ

... I won´t bored you with the remainder of the week but suffice to say it mostly involved weilding a machete and hacking the forest to bits (at this is the point I refer you back to my earlier comment about ´conservation´. Where´s the bit where we plant trees and stuff? I spent the whole week chopping things down).

By the end of the week our dorm room was beginning to take on a certain aroma which wasn´t all that pleasant so.....

Nanegal, Pichincha, Ecuador lturnbull

In Quito haben wir uns erstmal in einem Hostel in dem Viertel "La Mariscal" einquartiert. Fast alle Hostels in Quito befinden sich in diesem zentrumsnahen Viertel und man merkt deutlich, dass es hier von Ausländern wimmelt. Die Cafes und Restaurants sind teuer und man spürt deutlich einen Hauch von Europa oder zumindest "westlicher Welt". Im Gegensatz zum Rest des Landes wird in Quito kulturell eine Menge ...

... of the forces of both poles acting at once, a lot of weird stuff can happen when you're standing on that magical line. For one, the forces of magnetism from the two poles actually debilitate the strength of anyone standing over the Equator. We did a strength test standing 20 feet away from the Equator, and then standing on it, and we were noticeably less strong on the Equator! It's also extremely difficult to walk in a straight line ...

... our identification badges - most boats made their "guests" wear a badge so they could be easily grabbed at the other end - needless to say we were both far too cool for that, so instead we lurked around trying to see the type of folk we'd be sharing the next five days with. Americans. Old ones. Oh well, our flight was called and we clambered onboard a creaking old 727 for the quick flight to Guayacil (Ecuador's second city) followed by the slightly longer hop over ...