Our last weekend adventure...
After working hard in the clinic all week, we soon realized that 3 weekends and a few free afternoons does not provide anywhere near enough time to see all of the amazing sights that Ecuador has to offer. Our last trip was thrown together as a last minute effort to experience as much as possible.
We started our trip with a short flight from Quito to the southern colonial city of Cuenca. We spent our first night there and were so happy that we had the chance to meet up with our friends who came all the way from Puyo to join us. Our first priority was to see the most well preserved Incan ruins in Ecuador, a site called Ingapirca that is about an hour away from Cuenca. The five of us squeezed into a cab that took us on a beautiful scenic drive to the site.
 |
| Ingapirca, Ecuador |
 |
| Sue, Cristina, Jana, Me and Chloe standing in front of the temple of the sun. |
 |
| Temple of the sun |
After Ingapirca, it was back to Cuenca for some more sight-seeing. The architecture is stunning and gives the city such a romantic feeling. Of all of this places in Ecuador that we visited, this was the one place where I felt like I could actually live. The people were nice, the food was great and there was no pollution or crowded streets. It was definitely a more relaxed feeling than Quito.
 |
| So many beautiful cathedrals in Cuenca. |
We were sad to leave Cuenca and our friends from Puyo, but the next stop of Sue, Jana, and I was the beach! We rode the bus all the way to the coast to the famous surfing town, Montanita. Apparently there are annual surfing competitions here and this is where surfers come to practice (and party). The town was pretty quiet during the day, and it really appeared that everyone was at the beach. I'm not a surfer, but I loved boogie boarding when I was a kid, and this was the perfect place to try it again. So much fun!
 |
| Amazing beach at Montanita. Don't let the clouds fool you, the sun was hot! |
Our final destination was supposed to be Isla de la Santa, also known as the "Poor Man's Galapagos." Unfortunately, we arrived at Puerto Lopez too late in the morning and missed the boat...literally. Since we were already at the port, however, we decided to take a tour of a closer island, Isla Salanga. It was definitely not what we were expecting, but we played with crabs on the beach, learned that hot sand helps take away the pain from jellyfish stings and I got to drive the boat back into the harbor. Most importantly, we finally did get to see some blue-footed boobies!
 |
| Frigate birds going for some fish |
 |
| Sure, its not the best picture, but that is a blue-footed boobie! |
No comments:
Post a Comment