— Travel and Trekking Jots & Shots
Andes and Amazon
Seen on the Bellavista – La Virgen hike in Baños, Ecuador
These are the articles and observations I wrote while journeying through Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia over 3.5 months. To read these travel tales about South America in order, use the pagination links at the bottom of the page to navigate to the last page, then come back to the beginning in reverse.
Browse the selection of articles below about travel and trekking in South America.
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Well, the bus ride from Lima to Cusco was much better than the one from Piura to Lima. The scenery was all desert. Along the coast, more desert, with frothing waves breaking upon the beach and huge rock formations dotting the shoreline. Eventually, we rejoined the mountains, but that was after sunset. Sunset! Surreal. Hazy mountains in the […]
I take it back — I hate the bus! At least, I know when I hate the bus: at night. Especially when there’s no toilet on the bus and it doesn’t stop for 12 hours! The smoker in me screams “Inhumane!” at such an outrage, as well. So obviously, the bus ride from Piura to Lima went badly. […]
Yesterday saw me crossing the Ecuadorian-Peruvian border. I travelled alone from Loja to Piura, Brandon having gone to Vilcabamba in Ecuador. A Brilliant Bus Ride in Ecuador The scenery from the bus was just amazing! There were some pretty cool trees which a local man told me are called ceiba. The ceiba trees I saw grow in all […]
I was pretty happy to leave Cuenca and head for Loja. Even though I’ve only been gone from Mera for a week, I’m already sick of cities and just wanna go back to the countryside. Seeking some good hiking near Loja, I visited Parque Nacional Podocarpus, only about an hour and a half away by bus. Funny thing, […]
Brandon and I left Baños at about six yesterday morning. The bus ride to Cuenca took all day — we only got into the city around dinnertime. We planned nothing more for our brief stay than a bit of down time in Cuenca, so after supper, we headed to a café for a game of cribbage over hot […]
After our morning canyoning adventure, Brandon and I had lunch, then we went hiking in Baños‘s surrounding hills. The first part of the journey was the most difficult, almost straight up the whole time. We reached Bellavista, a white cross overlooking the town, and rested. We continued on the paved road to Runtún, a small village high up […]
I’ve found myself a travelling companion for the next few days. I met Brandon, from San Francisco, shortly after arriving in Baños on Tuesday. We were sharing a dorm room and realized we had similar short-term travel plans, so once we decided on the same activities yesterday, the rest just fell into place. And that turned out to […]
Work’s been pretty relaxed this week during my last work days at Merazonia, so I really can’t understand why I’ve got this blasted cold. Well, in any case, I now know that I’d rather paint three coats in a whole room with drywall than paint one coat on a small cement holding tank. For toilets, no less! I […]
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