A View of Quito

Karla and may be back in the United States, but we still have plenty to write about our five month sojourn in South America.  Meanwhile, while collect our thoughts and review all of the photos we've taken, I wanted to post these views of Quito.  We took these photos from the Yaku Museo del Agua (that's the water museum), up on the lower slopes of the volcano Pichincha.

Quito - El Panicello from Yaku Museo del Agua

Quito - City, with View of Basílica del Voto Nacional,
Seen from Yaku Museo del Agua

Quito - City as Seen from Yaku Museo del Agua #2

Quito - City as Seen from Yaku Museo del Agua #3

Quito - Graveyard on the Hillside of Pichincha, Next to El Placer,
as Seen from the Yaku Museo del Agua

Quito - City as Seen from Yaku Museo del Agua #5
(Tunnel Through the Mountainside)

Quito - City as Seen from Yaku Museo del Agua #6

Quito - Rainbow in the Distance

Baltimore Daydreaming

Being back in Baltimore - it's like a strange daydream.  Driving down 83, walking along the Avenue in Hampden, sitting on the back porch at our friend's house listening to the crickets...  It's like we almost never left, or we've returned at the point we initially embarked, except that we've crossed over into a strange, slightly altered version of this city and American life.

Being back has its perks.  You never know what you're going to miss when you travel until you get there, and travelling reminds you of what's important in your non-travelling life.  Family and friends, most obviously - just being able to go out to chat over coffee, or make a phone call that doesn't have to cross continents.  City streets that you're familiar with.  Tap water that you can drink with impunity.  No roosters cock-a-doodle-doing at all kinds of nighttime hours.  Availability of cream cheese, jalapeños, hot sauce, tofu, fake meat products, hearty bread...

View of Quito - as seen from the Yaku Museo del Agua

At the same time, there are so many wonderful people you meet, so many beautiful things you see, so many ideas you're exposed to, cultures that you learn, from travelling.  Being back in Baltimore is, in this regard, odd.  I don't have to try to think and speak in Spanish anymore.  I can't look out the window and see 20,000-foot high volcanoes soaring into the clouds along the Andes.  All the birds around here are familiar - no frigate birds, no parrots.  And there are no sun-soaked, wrinkled Quechua wandering around still wearing traditional garb (felt hats, layered skirts for the women...) that was forced upon them some 500 years ago during the Spanish conquest.  Not to mention the fruit - so many kinds of fresh fruit, at such a low price, ranging from the standard bananas and mangoes to the marvelous achotillo and granadilla and an overabundance of avocados.

It seems impossible that three days ago we were wandering around Quito, through the vendors at El Ejido park, along the streets of the Mariscal, up the hillside to the Yaku Museo del Agua...  Now it's Lake Montebello, the inner harbor, the Waverly Farmers Market, rowhouses...

After a dream dissolves into life.

After we slid and huddled into the taxi leaving Quito very early this morning, I looked out the window to take in the end of this journey. A sudden heartache and emotional swell passed through me as I realized that I would have to come back and see more, experience more and that is never enough. There are so many places to see. So many places that I want to dream of, sense, and let enter through the left open windows of my center.

Thoughts of all the things we didn't do tried to ruin the moment for me but I would turn to my husband, my friend, and the other traveler who helped keep me whole, grounded, and he would remind me of all we have experienced and that we can return if we really want to again.

I thought of the future in Baltimore and the people I love so much and that made me antsy for it all now. I thought of the hunger I would always feel if I didn't live. I thought of all the things that we would miss and the things I looked forward to. It all added up to the fact that I am super freaking lucky. And I did it. I made a dream happen.

I thought about the volcanos I didn't see because they were covered in mist and fog and cloud. And for our final departure I was blessed with a bird's eye view of three peaks bursting from the earth to the sky. All it took was an early, early morning and a beautiful sunrise rolling up and over the earth and across the equator for us to see three feirce custodians of the past, present, and future. The mouths of Pachamama; a kiss of fire that could still spurt its intensity regardless of how the people below regard their fortune.

Those volcanos stood like brothers and sisters dreaming of what they will become and I witnessed my own dream dissolve in the wake of their majestic calm.

One Day in the Jungle

A monkey watching us at the
refuge out of Puyo.

Before leaving Baños, Karla and I decided to take a day trip to the nearby jungle, the western edge of the massive Amazon.  Of course, one day is hardly enough time to get know the jungle - just enough to give you a taste without being eaten alive by mosquitos or falling over a waterfall in a leaky canoe!  As I quipped to Karla, we were on the "Welcome to the Jungle Now Get Out" tour...

Still, we wanted to see the jungle before we left, and since we hadn't been able to get anything bigger assembled (nor really had the motivation for a longer jungle experience after nearly five months of travel), we decided to arrange a day trip to one of the local agencies in Baños.  We weren't under any illusions - you can't go too far into the jungle in one day, and we'd be seeing areas that were right next to human habitations, so the odds of seeing, say, a giant anaconda were slim to none.  Nevertheless, we were not disappointed.

New Ecuador Photos and Videos Posted!

As Karla and I wile away our days here in Baños de Agua Santa, we've been able to take advantage of the persistent wireless connection at our hostel to upload the backlog of photos and videos (more or less).  In chronological order, here they are...

Spying on a Volcano

La Casa del Arbol

Since we last posted anything, we have been at a farm, the beach, a city, and now the town of baths. Baños de Agua Santa is three and 1/2 hours south of Quito and it is surrounded on all sides by mountains.

Yesterday we climbed to the top of one those very steep and green monsters. We were going to see the Volcano Tungurahua. We had a very filling and tasty breakest of fruit, yogurt and granola, and huevos fritos... and rolls. Perfect power food.

Galapagos Pictures - Highlights - #1

Male frigate bird in a Palo Santo tree
on North Seymour Island.

It turns out that the Surf Shak here in Canoa has super-fast Internet, so I was able to upload to flickr the highlights from our first couple of days in the Galapagos Islands!  To view them, go to our "Galapagos Highlights" flickr set, which details the best shots from the islands of North Seymour, Rabida, and Santiago (at Puerto Egas).