Ecuador (Quito and the highlands)

navigating tags: Home Page Places Index Time Index

We visited Quito, Ecuador, in the Andean highlands in April 2004 and traveled to the nearby towns of Otavalo and Ibarra to the north and the tallest volcano in the world, Cotopaxi, to the south.

a street in Quito near the cathedral

April 2004 - Having visited the Andes in Venezuela at Merida and in Peru at Cusco and Machu Picchu, it was only natural to spend a few days checking out the Andean community of Quito - and the air fares were right. We had a very pleasant and cool week here.

a market scene in Otavalo with big sacks of beans and rice

Cade on a rim of the Cotocachi caldera - a mile across and at the center of a large volcanic region

We traveled with Marilyn Barnwell and her youngest daughter Isabel, and were guided around in Quito some by Paul Gioffi and soon-to-be-wife Kristina, both of whom had taught school with us the year before in Maracaibo.

We mostly rode around on buses from our base camp at the Magic Bean Posada in the tourist district of Quito.

cold visitors from the tropics at the Cotopaxi upper parking lot before we took our mountain bike ride down the cinder cone (Biking Dutchman tour company, across the intersection from the Magic Bean)