Category: Ecuador

  • From Floreana, With Love

    The world is a small place, and there’s one tradition in the Galapagos Islands that seeks to show visitors exactly that. In Post Office Bay on Floreana Island, one of the 18 islands that make up the Galapagos archipelago off the coast of mainland Ecuador, there is a barrel just inland from a beach where visitors…

  • South America: Our Favorites

    We really loved our three and a half months in South America, from the tropical shores of the Caribbean in Colombia, to snorkeling with sea lions in the Galapagos Islands to hiking among 6000+ meter peaks in Peru. It’s an immensely varied continent, and we barely even scratched the surface. We found nothing but warm and…

  • From Baños to Huaraz

    It feels like we’ve been covering a lot of ground in the last two weeks. After spending over five weeks in tiny Ecuador, we realized we needed to get moving if we want to make Patagonia by early October. Baños was pretty much the last place we wanted to spend time in in Ecuador and…

  • Yum: Licor de Serpiente

    Travel rule #1: When you’re in a restaurant owned by a guy with a Stetson hat and an epic handlebar moustache, and the drink list contains a house specialty called Licor de Serpiente (Snake Juice), you order it. Had the proprietor, Shanta, showed me the bottle of yellowing liquor with the actual, full-grown Coral snake…

  • Yum: Canelazo

    A warm drink made with sugar cane liquor, freshly squeezed orange and passion fruit juices, and cinnamon. Shown here from the Cafe del Cielo, with Baños in the valley below. Rainy days beware!  

  • Baños: Spanish Lessons and a Homestay

    After several weeks in South America, I decided it was time to stop muddling through with my mixture of English and Italian and get some proper Spanish lessons. We chose Baños (full name: Baños de Agua Santa) as the spot, because it is surrounded by mountains, hot springs, and there are tons of outdoor activities…

  • Yum: Sanduiches de Higos y Queso

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    Warm figs simmering in a sweet sugary syrup. With cheese. On warm bread. For $1. Sold on the street in Quito. Need we say more?

  • Galapagos Island Hopping

    Although we had originally planned to volunteer right up until we had to leave for our cruise, due to unfavorable ferry schedules and our long weekends off at Jatun Sacha, we decided it made more sense to leave the reserve the Saturday before the Wednesday our cruise left (so, ok, we’re also at fault for…

  • Videos: Bogota, Salento, Galapagos

    While we put the finishing touches on our next and last Galapagos post (and a few other goodies we’re working on for you), here are some videos we’ve taken on the trip. Uploading videos takes a long time and a lot of patience with the hostel and cyber cafe Internet connections we’ve been forced to…

  • Volunteering in the Galapagos

    We knew we wanted to volunteer in a few places when we first started planning out our trip several months back. We also knew we wanted to spend a good amount of time in the Galapagos, so one of the first things we did was apply to be volunteers with an Ecuadorian organization called Jatun…