Sitting in another airport, waiting on another flight. This time we ended up with a seven hour wait between flights between the Galápagos Islands and an overnight back into the US.
We will be back in Bend tomorrow afternoon.
From Ecuador.
Ecuador.
I guess what I can say is…
Wow.
I cannot believe the sheer diversity crammed into one little country. It is diverse in culture, geography, geology, and wildlife. In five months we have been from the beach, to the mountains, to the center of the world, to the islands (sounds like a Johnny Cash song).
We “really liked all of it” (the quotation marks are because that is a direct quote from Tam).
Me? I was pretty blown away by all of it.
It seems like every ecosystem is the very best of its type. The visuals are constantly stunning. The beaches are really beachy, the mountains are incredibly mountainy, the volcanoes very volcanic, the jungles so torrid and jungly, and the islands just soooo islandy.
The diversity of flora and fauna is amazing. So much variety. There was some statistic I saw about one acre of Amazon rainforest containing more variety of flora than the entire US. There were a lot of trees and bushes and green stuff. The pitcher plants were my favorites. We saw everything from marine mammals and fish to terrestrial mammals to birds to big giant reptiles to tiny little bitty-ass chiggers (we didn’t really see them, but Tam got eaten alive by them) and everything in-between.
Just so much life. Everywhere.
The people are open, friendly, and polite. We didn’t have a single interaction with any Ecuadorians that was anything other than perfectly pleasant.
And the smiles… one thousand watts. Every single time.
If there was one thing I might complain about, and it ain’t much of a complaint, is the food. It’s a bit… well, redundant? There are a lot of the same looking plates, with fried meat/fish, little salad, patacones, rice, and French fries. It’s good, but it does get a bit repetitious. The soups are absolutely amazing though.
Overall, the food was good, and they serve plenty, but I would have loved a bit of variety.
I did eat Cuy, which is roasted guinea pig. It was good, but a bit chewy. And it is silly expensive.
So, I guess the ultimate question is, would I come back?
Maybe? Probably not anytime soon.
I am a bit of the mind that I have seen what I need to see here. We had amazing experiences and loved every bit of it, but, as I said in the beginning, it is a small country. I kind of feel like we saw it.We surfed some fun waves (and some crappy ones), and we snorkeled and played with sea lions, iguanas and penguins, and we hiked and explored and watched some birds (boooooorrrrriiiiing), and I can’t think of anything else I need here.
And so, with no further ado (or explanation), here are a few pictures that kind of capture the whole thing (and, well, there are some previous posts on this blog of course, if you are interested).
