A&J's Travels: THE ADVENTURE TO THE CLOUD FOREST

After a small but necessary amount of sleep the four of us set out in Puff-Puff, Chuck and Nancy's Korean baby SUV. With a helpful and amusing GPS we made it safely out of Quito and made our first stop at MITAD DEL MUNDO - the middle of the world commonly known as the equator.

Even though it's not the EXACT equator, this is the site that has all the monuments to the early French explorers who "discovered" it. (Meanwhile, less that a km away is the true equator which the natives knew about long before the French). Here are the French explorers lining up toward the equator monument.

Of course you can't come here and not straddle both hemispheres. Chuck and Nancy did the honors.

And in case there is any doubt, here's the latitude.

After this exciting diversion (and some refrescos) we went to an overlook of an area where people have settled in a volcanic caldera. Picture Crater Lake being drained and people farming in the lake bed.

This area is called Pululahua and is known as a geo-botanical area. On the road once more - our destination Bella Vista Cloud Forest Reserve. I was pleased to see some amusing things already.

For those of you who haven't read my past Ecuador blogs CUY is the word for Guinea Pig. Cuy Asado is roasted guinea pig, an Ecuadoran delicacy which I intend to try on this trip. Also seen on the road was this amazing load of pallets.

We had a beautiful drive through the Andes on our way to the cloud forest and out in the middle of nowhere came upon this little encampment which advertised a restaurant.

We stopped to see if we could get lunch and the patroness said she would cook for us. She held up a lovely trout and a lovely tilapia and asked if those would be ok. We said an enthusiastic YES. Here she is grilling the fish in her wonderful outdoor kitchen.