Ecuador October 5-23 2000 Home Page Itinerary Photo Album Contact Us	In the ongoing World Series of our travels, Ecuador has won the hotly contested battle – edging out Alaska as Warren & Megan’s favorite locale. We spent three memory- studded, awe-inspiring and richly varied weeks in Ecuador. Week one found us in and around the city of Quito, week two lured us deep into the rainforest to Kapawi, an eco-lodge in SE Ecuador, and week three led us around the breathtaking Galapagos Islands. Quito is a very pleasant city, divided geographically and visually between its old and new quarters. We spent a weekend in the countryside at La Mirage, a beautiful spa resort with individual bungalows. Megan thrived on the hustle and bustle of the large market in the village of Otavalo, which overflowed with trinkets and other irresistible items. The market was rife with all manner of things for sale, from the inanimate to the animate – from vibrant hand-knit sweaters and embroidered dresses to squirming bunny rabbits and clucking chickens. We then headed to another neighboring town, San Antonio de Ibarra, a town reknown for its wood carvings, some of which will no doubt end up in our beach house. The highlight of our Quito experience was spending an afternoon and evening with the Baders, an Ecuadorian family who is good friends with Warren’s uncle, Bob. From the country, we went to the jungle to enjoy the wilds and wonders of Kapawi (www.kapawi.com). Kapawi ecolodge is a joint venture between a South American travel agency and the local Achuar Indian tribe. During these early years of the lodge, the agency rents the land from the Achuar, and will turn over the entire operation to the Achuar in 2013. The ecolodge is a series of wooden, thatched-roof huts, all built by the Achuar in their traditional style. We had two wonderful guides for our trip: Wilian, a young Ecuadorian naturalist, and Walter, an Achuar community leader and Kapawi founder. They were both unbelievably knowledgeable and had the uncanny knack of spotting wildlife a mile away, without the aid of binoculars. We went on daily canoe trips and rainforest hikes and were rewarded with new sightings every day: macaws, giant toucans, pink dolphins (yes! -- dolphins in a *river* ), monkeys, alligators, tarantulas, bats, medicinal trees and plants. One of the most wonderful and fun aspects of our rainforest week was the company. We had the great pleasure of sharing Kapawi with Debra & Harper, Leslee & Terry and Sandy & Tom. These three Texan couples -- all of whom are pilots or first officers for American Airlines -- are avid travelers, tackling two remote and exotic locales annually and always together as a group! Their senses of humor and adventure and their fondness for beer and margaritas added enormously to the week’s fun and enjoyment. The hands-down highlight of the week was spending a day with Walter’s Achuar community where Warren did his utmost to become an Achuar. As you’ll see from photos below, he had his face painted in traditional paint and excelled at firing the traditional Achuar blowgun. Note to self: keep all darts away from Warren’s mouth. From the jungle, we headed to paradise, spending a week aboard the Parranda, (www.ladatco.com/GPS-PNDA.HTM ) doing nautical figure-eights throughout the Galapagos Islands. Each day was spent exploring a different island. In the mornings we explored on foot, hiking the islands; the afternoons found us submerged in chilly waters snorkeling. We quickly learned the three axioms of the Galapagos: 1) The wildlife is so thickly plentiful that there’s no chance of missing something. If you happen to miss seeing the first blue-footed booby, rest assured, you’ll have 742 more chances. 2) The birds and animals are so unafraid of man that you can get within inches of them! 3) When in doubt of a species’ name, you’ll have a 90% chance of being correct if you simply insert either “Galapagos,” “Lava,” or “Darwin,” in front of the species’ generic name. Here’s a partial list of what we saw: BIRDS: Blue- and red-footed boobies, masked boobies (they’re BIRDS, for those of our snickering, mature friends), Swallow-tailed gulls, waved albatross, frigate birds, red-billed tropicbirds, American Oystercatchers, Darwin’s 13 varieties of finches, Galapagos Hawk, Galapagos Dove, Pelicans, Penguin, flightless cormorants, herons, egrets and short-eared owls; ANIMALS: Sea lions, fur seals, sally lightfoot crabs, hermit crabs, marine & land iguanas, giant tortoise, sea turtles, sharks (black- and white-tipped reef sharks), Orca & Minke whales, bottle-nosed dolphins, Sting & Manta rays. As the most spectacular place we’ve ever had the pleasure of enjoying, we hope all of our friends and family will someday make it to this most magical of places.
	Ecuador Pictures (click on each to enlarge)
	Equator Hopping	Kapawi Ecolodge	Tree Frog	Galapagos Boat
	Red Footed Boobie	Catch of the Day	Nap Time	Sally Lightfoot
	Marine Iguana	Sea Lion Chess	Prickly Plant	Giant Tortoise