Hotel Plaza Guayaquil

... if you've found a recipe that works, and it clearly does for him, then fantastic. We sent him to Montezumas too!<br><br>The ride to Sta Elena was fairly non descript, more dry forest (that still reminds me of something a bit dead) and for the first time in a while we saw blue sky. The road undulated all the way, so every now and again we had to do a bit of work, but a lot of the time it was meditation time. We passed lots of little encampments at the ...

... with him, his fiancé, &amp; Ivonne. Prepared my Ecuadorian Phone<br><br>Monday morning went to the Ecuador Bethel. Simple and beautiful. Sister Toni, greeted me with great hospitality. She is a character and gave me and the other two in our tour a hand painted picture (done by herself &#8211; excellent artist). My tour was mainly in Spanish.<br>*********<br>Then off to the Airport for Cuenca. Now this is where a bag story begins (reference Movies: What&#8217;s up Doc? And ...

... for a dollar but was it crowded. Crowded in a good way! since i was last to be picked up off the side of the street i basically get to stand out the door, having the cool breeze flowing past me on the compact dirt roads. The sun is setting and presented me with the most beautiful view of the surrounding area. A dry, but green landscape roaming with cattle and chickens. I watch the sun set until we stop in san antonio for me to hit a ...

... prepare the "Bandeja Paisa". We arrived around 6pm, and then went to wait for the others at the main ave at 7pm... till' about 8.15pm when we would wait for no others (good ole South American punctuality). Then the dinner was prepared while most of us danced, with intermittent dancing from our fabulous Colombian chef, and his Brazilian assistant. We finally got to eating around midnight or so, and it was super delicious... The bandeja paisa, a typical dish ...

... and said ´bar.´ Easy translation. I went over there solely because it had been a long day and I needed a drink, loose a little edge, sleep better. I get a bunch of looks when i enter the bar which from my perspective is a cowboy bar at some dudes house. I look really out of place. Rule one I´ve learned is ´drink what the locals are drinking´I take a look around and the locals are overwhelming drinking Brahma. I ask for one poorly and hope to sit kinda against the bar for the ...

... treeline. We saw lots of really cool looking, gnarled treelike things, mosses, llamas, trout streams, lakes.....pretty spectacular scenery. And, as if this were not enough, we were treated to the Spanish-dubbed version of Tombstone (Kurt Russell, Sam Elliot, etc.) for our in-transit movie. Yes, this was a a real travel coach, not a chicken bus, but it was still only $7 each.

... for all of them! It was an interesting ride for many reasons. The first was that I was sitting in the front seat of the upper level of this bus. Needless to say, I had a very interesting view for the entire ride! A bit difficult to sleep up there because the lights of oncoming cars was continually in my eyes and then when I would open my eyes I would see things like the bus swerving to avoid a group of horses that was for some reason running across the street ...

... Complete surprise en comparaison avec les enormes buildings et rues encombrees du centre, plus gris et bruillant que jamais. Las Penas est constitue de 2 collines surplombant la ville et l'ocean. Une dizaine de rues pietonnes, pavees et joliement colorees s'y enchevetrent. Chaque enseigne est un cafe litteraire, une gallerie d'art ou d'artisanat ...

... the city a little and for the first time on my whole trip I actually ventured onto one of the "tourist buses" - the open-topped red things that normally I avoid like the plague ... but with limited time I figured it might help me see the main highlights of the city quickly (ie. in less than 2 hours). It actually turned into a rather entertaining bus ride , less for the sights of Guayaquil (largely car ...

... nous ;-)<br>Enfin, tout s'est arrangé et je suis allée au ciné voir "North Country" en espagnol. C'était le seul film, quoique nord-américain, qui n'était pas un bête blockbuster, et j'ai beaucoup aimé.<br>J'ai encore un peu traîné dans un cybercafé avant de rentrer à la maison en taxi, où j'ai retrouvé un Francis fort inquiet que je rentre si tard (21h20) et que je ne décroche pas mon gsm. Je l'avais éteint au ciné et oublié de le rallumer... Je me suis très ...