We’re very excited to have Witt’s parents visiting us in Cuenca for the holidays. They made a heroic effort to get here: Montrose to Denver to Panama City to Guayaquil. After arriving there at midnight, they got a hotel in the city where we picked them up the next morning for the final leg of the journey to Cuenca.

Since then we’ve been busy exploring the city and the surrounding area. We can see why Cuenca has been rated one of the best places to retire in the world. It’s nearly perfect climate and affordable prices have attracted a community of about 7000 expats so far.

The Sparks in Guayaquil

Quinn finds more cars to drive

On the way from Guayaquil to Cuenca we climbed from sea level to this 13,600 foot pass. We were definitely feeling the altitude after a couple of weeks at sea level!

We tried to keep my parents from contributing to Cuenca’s graffiti problem, but they couldn’t resist a little tagging.

The blue domes of the new cathedral make great photos.

The interior is no less impressive.

But there’s work to be done too…

Quinn had great fun on a zip line in a local park.

Catch!

Quinn made us a Christmas tree with help from Grammy and Papa.

Papa enjoys a sunny morning at a coffee shop.

We spent a day on an organized tour, visiting a church carved into the side of a cliff, a local market, and a northern outpost of the Incas. The ruin was not as impressive as Machu Picchu, but it was interesting to see the same perfectly carved stones.

Bienvenidos a Ecuador!

The hanging houses of Cuenca’s riverfront

We ended out spending a few more days in Puerto Lopez.

With beaches like this, why not?

Unlike some of the more touristy towns along the coast, Puerto Lopez is still a working fishing village. That meant each morning we’d walk to the fish market to buy dinner.

We reluctantly left Puerto Lopez to continue south. On the recommendation of other travelers we stopped at a cliff top hotel for lunch.

Best home-made playground equipment to date.

Walking on the beach in Montañitas

Despite the fact that it was a “hike” our walk out to the rocky point garnered two thumbs up.

Hi!

We stopped in Montañitas to visit Jen’s friend Lainie and her son Miro, who together organize and run Project World School.

With our time on the coast coming to an end, we are very excited to be heading to Guayaquil where we will pick up Witt’s parents who will be staying with us in Cuenca for the holidays.

On the way into Guayaquil, we drove through the beach town of Salinas just to get a feel for it. We also stopped at La Chocolatera (chocolate earth), a windy point on the coast with some stunning scenery.

We also stopped at a salt factory where they were drying seawater in giant reservoirs to extract the salt. They let us climb up one of the salt piles, a first for all of us!

Sometimes you have a day where everything just comes together nicely. Our last day in Mindo was one of those days. We decided to go to the El Quetzal restaurant for breakfast. We ordered and were pleasantly surprised with the best breakfast we’ve had in quite a while. Then we found out that the owners of the place also make their own chocolate.

A mot-mot spotted from our campsite in Mindo.

Having been on three or four coffee tours we had been wanting to learn a bit about chocolate. Add a trip to a winery and you might possibly have the three most important things in life covered. So without delay we signed up for their chocolate making tour. Our tour guide showed us everything from the plants to the raw beans to the drying and roasting process, similar to coffee. Then it was on to the most important part, the tasting.

We started with a small bowl of 100% pure chocolate that was the consistency of molasses. Unsweetened, it tasted dark and bitter, but still like chocolate. Then she added sugar, which made the taste much more palatable. Next we sampled the chocolate accompanied by ginger and ground chili peppers. The results were amazing, and we left with several items from their store, including a chocolate BBQ sauce that we can’t wait to try.

Our stomachs full and happy, we hit the road, descending toward a town on the Northern coast of Ecuador called Esmeraldas. The roads, as with most roads we’ve been on in Ecuador, were great and after a quick stop for groceries we rolled into a campground on the beach that other travelers had told us about.

The place was owned by Judith, an American who had spent virtually her entire life traveling. She had even driven a VW camper around in West Africa in the late 60s. She had been living on this beach in Ecuador for 23 years and was fascinating to talk with.

Since the day had gone so well up until then, we decided to cap it off with beer and lobster. A perfect end to a perfect day!

One of the local trees was losing its yellow flowers, and it looked as though they spread out a bed of flowers for us to camp on.

Our next stop featured a nice beach with this helpful sign indicating that we are now 5000km from some unknown point in Canada.

The place was funky, with a lighthouse serving as the bathroom and shower.

Our next stop was a short drive down the coast where we met a couple of American surfers driving a van registered in British Columbia. The van had apparently never actually been to BC, having been imported from Japan. Since then it’s been sold and resold to travelers and has probably seen more of South America than anyone alive.

Sunset on the beach in Canoas

Next stop Puerto Lopez, a small fishing town. It’s got a laid back atmosphere, and you can sort of tell it won’t be long before big hotels start pushing out the fishermen.

Last night we went out to dinner in Mindo, a town in the cloud forest West of Quito, Ecuador. While we were waiting for our food, we noticed several things that would never happen in the US. We’re sort of used to this kind of thing, but it was interesting to stop and think about it.

The owner, hostess, waitress, and chef were all the same person. We sat down to order, and the first three things we asked for on the menu were “no hay” (not available). We discovered that chicken and fish were our only options that night. One of the things that was no hay was cerveza, so I got up and walked to the tienda next door and bought two to bring back to our table.

Our 20oz beers cost $1.25 each. After dinner I returned the bottles to claim my 25 cent deposit.

Once we started eating, a street dog walked in and sat next to our table looking up at me with eyes that only a dog who wants what you’re eating more than life itself can possess. I felt bad for it and dropped some of my fish skin onto the floor.

Outside, the street was torn up in a construction project. Nothing was fenced off, from the giant hole in the street to the piles of new sewer or water line sitting next to it. The local kids were playing on the dirt piles and the piping.

We enjoyed our fish and after Quinn played in the construction site for a bit we meandered back to the campground.

So aside from grilled trout and cheap beer, here’s some of what we’ve been up to in the past week as we make our way to Cuenca, where we will be meeting my parents for the holidays.

We met a German couple at the campground in Ibarra. They’re in a huge 4×4 truck that makes our van look like a toy.

One highlight was a visit to a raptor rehabilitation facility where we got to see flight demonstrations of some amazing eagles and hawks.

They even had two bald eagles. This one is “Gringo,” the female is named “Gringa.”

We got our first real glimpse of a snow-capped Andean peak.

We crossed the equator for like the fifth time, but this was the first time we drove across (since we crossed it in Gabon, anyway, 10 years ago. This time the temperatures were MUCH cooler!).

In Quito camped in a parking lot at Parque Carolina, a huge park that featured this airplane in the kids play area.

There was a festival while we were there and we got to sample some exotic Ecuadorean cotton candy.

We first met Melanie and Justin from Providence, Rhode Island, back in Colombia and really hit it off with them. We got to spend a few days hanging out together in Quito.

We rode the Teleferico (gondola) to a viewpoint above the city.

At the bottom of the Teleferico there was an amusement park where we spent the rest of the day.

Quinn loved the bumper cars.

The next day we went to the old town to see the changing of the guard. The president, Raphael Correa, came out to wave to the people gathered in the plaza below.

In a nearby cathedral, a painting of the Last Supper features Jesus feasting on Cuy (a local delicacy of roasted guinea pig).

Next it was on to Papallacta, a volcanic area high in the mountains that features lots of hot springs.

The next morning I went for a hike in the surrounding hills.

Our next stop was Mindo, a birder’s paradise.

We went for a hike in the cloud forest and visited a series of waterfalls.