Day 2: Hacienda Porvenir

high up in the altitudes, stayed @ this working farm (llamas, cows, sheep: oh my) & woke up every night @ 3am w/ a throbbing headache. but the scenery was fab, cotopaxi & raminahua were snowy, and we got to volcano hike & ride horses....everybody enjoyed the 'comfy rustic' vibe of the hacienda, but they didn't complain later when we moved on to the tropical swelter of Tena...

Day 1: llegada en Quito

give thanks to y'all:

finally posting some ecuadorian mashcards for everybody who was expecting to get something old-fashioned & papery in their metal mailbox, but din't. these are the backs of the cards i bought (but didn't send) after doctoring on a hike (read: lazy foto walk) a day or two after we got home. tops are real w/ this after-scribble (but not necessarily city-specific) addenda, bottoms are my pix from then there.

gettin' on wit it: can't remember if this one had anything to do w/ the after-scrawl, but did plan on using it for my 'walking thru el centro' lead-in, the chance this time around too good to desert...

here's what i remember now re: them times --

• uneventful, easy flights (+ miami diversion)
• Stace left her cell phone in the mag. pocket of our 1st plane & had to almost chase it back down the run.way in panic
  
• meeting Cary @ aeropuerto/Quito, 1st glimpses of the city @ night thru bus eyes
  
• nighttime walk to Casa Sol: pedestrian, colors, digs
• meeting Stefi next day & asking where i could find a copy of Los detectives salvajes (LibriMundi blocks away hooked me up 2x)
• walk downtown, exploring the Basilica: impressive round the corner, but no expects for attic-crawl & ladder-hoist up to the tippy towers
• E. jockeying for space on the pivot-circle of the ecobus, holding straps as the bellows skeleton turned
  
• rainy streets a week later as we enjoyed our farewell dinner & packed up to leave hotel @ 4am

<< reminds me of houdie, but better decorated... >>