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.

Here is Jim awaiting lunch with his newly found friend, "lobo."

Somehow we had a language problem and Chuck and Nancy got meat while Jim got a whole Tilapia and I got a whole trout. It was all yummy!

 Meat, mote (hominy), plantains, yucca.

 Trout, plantain, yucca, rice

 Tilapia, plantain, yucca, rice

And for dessert she fresh squeezed a bunch of oranges to make this delicious pitcher of juice.

 

 A very satisfying road-side stop.  Within the hour we were at our destination of Bella Vista, but that is a blog for another day.

Audrey

 

THE TRIP THAT ALMOST WASN'T

Jim and I had been excited for weeks about our upcoming trip to Ecuador.  We planned to fly our usual route - from LAX on COPA through Panama to Quito, Ecuador.  We took the airport shuttle to San Francisco in plenty to time to catch our 8 pm flight to LA on an airline which shall remain nameless but which starts with U.  This flight would get us in LA in plenty of time to catch our 1 AM flight to Panama.  It was nearly boarding time when they announced that our flight would be delayed due to a lighting problem. Then they said they needed a new generator and we would know by 9:15 PM if it was fixable.  By 9:10 we got the word that it was ok and we boarded the plane.  We pulled out of the gate (now 1-1/2  hours late) and then stopped.  A few minutes later the captain came on with a disgusted tone of voice and said, "well folks, we have no brakes so we'll be getting a tow back to the gate.  I have no idea what will happen next but will keep you posted."  Meantime everyone is getting on their smart phones and telling each other that the only other flight to LA that evening also had mechanical problems.  We pull back in to the gate and the flight attendants say that there are gate agents to help with connection problems.  We file off the plane and queue up.  There is ONE customer service agent.  Jim and I were 10 back in line and it took over 1 hour to get to the counter.  Mean time they announced that we would be taking an incoming plane for Chicago and going to LA with it - at MIDNIGHT.  Our connecting flight in LA was leaving at 1 AM.  We were able to call COPA and get two seats on the morning flight leaving at 7:30 AM.  When we finally got to LA we went to the Customer Service desk and got a hotel voucher - we were able to sleep for 2 whole hours before getting our new flight to Panama.

We had a 4 hour lay over in Panama City.  We met an interesting guy who had been sailing around the Caribbean with his wife and they were heading back to the States for the holidays.  The wife had gone ahead with their cat on an earlier flight (kitty quarantine in New Zealand - their next port of call) and he was stuck in the airport for over 12 hours.  Here was his solution to waiting for his 3 AM flight. 


 

We had an uneventful flight to Quito but were extremely, desperately tired when we got there.  By now it was 11 pm Quito time - 27 hours after leaving home!  It took us over an hour to go through immigration as at least 2 other flights had arrived at the same time.  While in line though we met an interesting and well spoken young woman who was a Colombian born American citizen who grew up in Houston and was now a compliance lawyer with an international oil company.  Finally we got through immigration to where all the luggage was - it was literally a sea of luggage strewn about in mass chaos.  Another 1/2 hour was spent looking for our 4th bag.  It was not to be found so we had to go to the kiosk where a very nice COPA official helped us and determined that the bag never left Panama.  By this time we were so tired we were nearly ill.  The only saving grace was the customs check point was a breeze and we had this wonderful driver awaiting us with a placard.

I have always wanted someone to meet me at a foreign airport with a sign.  I was ecstatic that it happened on this occasion.  I doubt we had the wherewithal left to deal with a taxi.  We got to the hotel around 2 AM and were happy to find Chuck and Nancy waiting up for us with a glass of wine.  Total travel time - 30 hours.

It can only go uphill from here.

Audrey