Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing

Let's talk about a weekend in Baños.


...no, let's not. Let's show. :)

The side of Volcan Tungurahua, the 3rd-largest volcano in Ecuador and entirely active

Saturday morning and out to breakfast after a 2 am arrival Friday night!

Oh, just chillin in the hammocks waiting for our guide.

Courtyard of our hotel: La Petit Auberge. 

On a bicycle tour of the waterfalls

This is what happens when I take photos and ride a bike simultaneously: some cool photos of our guide in front, AND the speed bump I almost wiped out on por la culpa de la camara.

Brianna and Lindsay behind...

Mountains in the clouds, beginning to feel normal here!

Twin falls

Esto es Ecuador

A weekend spent afuera (out) in Quito...

Jakob, Carl, Brianna and I at el Centro Cultural

The entirely cylindrical mall in la Mariscal

Amazingly picturesque presidential Plaza

In front of the famous Iglesia del San Francisco

There's so much to say, it's hard to know where to begin. Pues, para empezar, let's give a HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY SHOUT OUT to everybody at home who're probably gazing skyward at grand fireworks finales and eating barbequed hamburgers and apple pie. I'm celebrating my first Fourth "abroad", but I'll always be proud to live in the USA! I'm loving on Ecuador a lot from this blog, but I'm doing it from an American heart. Which I will always defend as a good thing, even when I take the mindset of a global citizen or find myself in a situation needing to apologize for my country.

Now no te preocupes, this is not a political blog. I want you to read it, after all. ;) But it IS the 4th of July, and it's the first one I've "missed".

Now, back to Ecuador.

This Flight is Closed

"This flight is closed."
"What?!"
"This flight is closed. It closes an hour before departure. No puedo ayudarte, has perdido tu vuelo."


I had just asked for my boarding pass at the Miami gate, to which I arrived after walking an unnecessary terminal over and back. They're serious about their Spanish on LAN Ecuador, it comes before English in every conversation. But in either language, I wasn't leaving that counter without a boarding pass.