Does the person create the journey or does the journey create the person? Our travels to Ecuador not only showed us the wonders it holds but our place in it. This journey was life itself... ama la vida.
Our stay at the Semilla Verde Lodge in Santa Cruz was off the beaten path. Located 12 miles from Puerto Ayora this verdant property has its own coffee plantation and a forest of native Scalesia trees that owner Robert is trying to conserve.
Bartolome island, named after Sir Bartholomew James Sulivan a lifelong friend of Charles Darwin and a Lieutenant aboard HMS Beagle, is a younger volcanic islet. Pinnacle rock is one of the most represented landmarks of the Galapagos.
The black Lava rocks on the beach are frequented by large, disgusting clumsy Lizards. They are as black as the porous rocks over which they crawl & seek their prey from the Sea. I call them 'imps of darkness'. They assuredly well become the land they inhabit.
- Charles Darwin, Beagle Diary.
They may be clumsy and have their name derived from the Spanish "bobo" meaning a clown but Blue Foot Boobys sure make some magnificent pictures.
Yasuni's location nurtures this abundance. The park sits at the intersection of the Andes, the Equator, and the Amazon region, an ecological bull's-eye where extremely rich communities of plants, amphibians, birds, and mammals in South America converge.
They call it a project. Located by the Anangu Cocha lake within the ancestral territory of the Kichwa Anangu community, The Napo Wildlife Center is a fine example of ecotourism supporting local communities.
The Yasuni-ITT initiative may have died but one look at the diversity makes you realize the urgent need to save all of the Amazon rainforest and time indeed is running out. In forests impacted by oil development, perhaps 90 percent of the species around denuded sites die. You have to ask: "Is that acceptable? To whom is that acceptable?"
Don't miss a trip to the Corondelet Palace. Remember to carry your passports.
Some of the best local fare in old town Quito - empanadas and ceviche with Pilsner.
A New Year's Eve tradition in Ecuador is for some men to dress as women the days before new Year's Eve representing the "widow" of the year that has passed.
