Just returned from a great weekend in Mindo - first time we've felt like we were on vacation, as opposed to traveling. It was just what we needed as once I finally kicked the flu bug, Zoe got it, and we had to spend a couple extra days in Quito while she recovered. Friday morning we hopped the bus to Mindo, a nature/resort/adventure area just a couple hours west of Quito, where Quiteños go for weekend getaways. This was immediately clear as we were the only...

Quick entry to go with Quito photos. Transition from Guatemala to Quito was a little challenging as I became sick (flu/cold) at end of Antigua stay and am just now back to about 85%, but we managed to enjoy Quito nonetheless. I liked it better than I remembered from about 15 years ago - it was much less polluted, much safer, and really bright and sunny during our visit. We stayed at a great little hostel in newer part of Quito with dog who kept guard from terr...

We'll have to blog about Quito later as we don't want to miss capturing our strange travel day to Otavalo. It was actually really good in the sense that we had to use Spanish a lot, had no idea where we were going or how to get places, and had lots of interesting conversations. We made a list of all the odd occurances at dinner to share: 1. On bus from Quito to Otavalo, this man got on the bus, very well coiffed and very serious and started "preaching" in fron...