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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Ecuador: The Galapagos Islands, Andean Highland and Amazonia

On September 26 we left for Quito to begin almost 4 weeks in Ecuador to visit the Galapagos and Amazon basin.   Because of the exact tours we wanted, it was necessary to spend an extra week with no itinerary between the Galapagos and Amazon portions.  That extra week was the connection that made our trip to Ecuador complete.  It's an amazing country that we knew little about before we left.  In that one tiny country you can find virtually every climate on the planet.  Quito, the capital, is almost 10,000 feet high and the highlands are even higher.  (For comparison, Lhasa is about 12,000 feet).  The altitude is noticeable and we were often out of breath walking up the jetway unless we had prepared with Diamox pills before our flight.  We compromised by taking our time and not doing any difficult hiking in the highlands.

We began our trip in Quito for a few days and explored the old town section.  We stayed at a delightfully elegant boutique hotel, Plaza Sucre Hotel.  During our first morning walk to the town square after breakfast we saw President and Mrs. Correa.

[NOTE: This post was abandoned and not finished. It turned out that the sighting of the President was fortuitous because within a day or so he was deposed by a police overthrow but regained power before we were aware of the problems. We had already flown into Baltros on the Galapagos and started our cruise aboard the May Anne.]

I won't complete this but just know that it was a wonderful vacation from the Galapagos, Guayaquil, Quito, Otavalo, Cotopaxi, El Provenir and Amazonia aboard the Manatee Amazon Explorer.

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