We have had an excellent time so far in Ecuador. We have been staying at La Luna Mountain Lodge nested in the hills of Otavalo. Every morning we have woken up to views of the Volcano Imbabura to the West and Volcano Cotacacchi to the East with farmland all around. We have been treated excellently by the staff, Rosa, Susy, Fernando, and Gabriel. They have started fires for us each night, cooked us food, cleaned our room and done our laundry. Kieran asked Gabriel if he was an angel a la the Archangel from the Bible, which we all had a laugh about. We have also gotten to know our regular cab driver Bolivar who has two teenage daughters and a 5-year old son (God help him.) Language is always a challenge, but we are learning more words daily and we know enough for basic communication. We enjoy being in the country. The town of Otavalo is about 10 minutes by rocky road away, so we usually order food at the restaurant and enjoy hikes around the countryside.
We have had to modify our itinerary to slow down a bit. We cut out our 4th leg in Cotapaxi at a Hacienda and trimmed down our 3rd leg in Quito. Kieran got sick twice on our way to Otavalo either due to the food or car-sickness (it’s a very windy/rocky road) and traveling has been wearing him out as well. I tend to want to travel at a much faster pace than we should. We were also a bit spooked by the 6.7 and 6.8 earthquakes yesterday. In light of these things, we will now be at La Luna until Sunday when we will head to Quito for our final two nights.

Ecuador lies directly on the equator and the sunrise/sunset are almost always the same with very little variation. The sun rises at approximately 6 a.m. and sets at approximately 6 p.m. It is certainly different than what those of us in the northern hemisphere are used to, i.e. long summer days and short winter days. Ecuador is approximately the size of Nevada and it has a rich and complex culture. The cuisine is excellent and in our location Trout and Beef are plentiful. In our past travels to other countries, the livestock has not appeared particularly healthy or well fed, not so here in Ecuador. The cows, chickens, pigs, sheep, etc. are all very happy and healthy, it’s probably due to the climate, which has less to do with direction north/south and more to do with elevation and the Mountains which have their own microclimates. The sun is very strong, even on cloudy days and plants get plenty of it. In the sun, it can feel very warm even though it rarely gets into the 80s and at night it generally dips into the 50s. Vegetation grows everywhere and the most beautiful flowers pop up from even very tiny plants. Beef here is some of the best I’ve ever had. Tonight we will dine at a Hacienda north of Otavalo and tomorrow we plan on seeing the Mohanda Crater Lakes.

We are happy and blessed to be able to travel and make memories while exploring more of our beautiful planet and meeting such wonderful people. We are grateful that damage during the earthquakes was minimal, please keep the country in your thoughts/prayers as they are still recovering from the 7.8 quake from last month which killed over 650 and destroyed thousands of structures.