Roadtrip Ecuador · 2022
Quito · Amazon Rainforest / Cuyabeno · Hummingbird Lodge · Cuicocha Crater Lake · Cotopaxi National Park · Banos · Alausi · Devil's Nose · Cuenca · Galapagos Islands
January 21, 2023
More than Giant Tortoises: The Galapagos Islands.
There are three things about the Galapagos Islands that almost everyone has thought at one time or another: They lie somewhere in one of the seven oceans, they have giant turtles, they were once in some PBS documentary.
As we plan our roadtrip through Ecuador, we notice the small, colorful dots in the middle of the sea on the map. Fact - the Galapagos Islands are part of Ecuador!
"While we're there...!", I say seriously to my boyfriend.
And so, toward the end of our three-week trip through Ecuador, we are sitting in a plane over the Pacific. On our way to see giant tortoises, un-penguins, lava tunnels and the question of what we humans are doing to a unique nature.
November 13, 2022
Roadtrip Ecuador: Tiny Hummingbirds - mighty Cotopaxi.
I step closer to the small sign. There is a picture of a mountain with plumes of smoke and a person running away. “Evacuación a Control Norte” (“North Control Evacuation”) is reassuringly written underneath. I glance up at Cotopaxi. The icy peak with jutting snow chutes beneath are wrapped in dark clouds. Rain clouds. Hopefully.
And Cotopaxi is not the only thing that is really impressive in Ecuador.
Ecuador is a country where you can go from grass covered highlands to cloud forests in an hour, or from hot Amazonian climates to snow in the Andean peaks. Come along on a journey and visit tiny hummingbirds, huge volcanoes, a crater lake, a rocky passage behind a waterfall, and a hellish railroad track.
October 30, 2022
Amazon Rainforest: Adventures in a fragile World.
Silently, the canoe glides through the opaque, brown-colored water. To our left and right, liana vines hang from the gnarled trees. It's hot, and the humidity is more in-your-face than the icky chamomile steam bath I had to take when I had fiendish colds in kindergarten.
Even though we're in the middle of the Amazon rainforest and two hours by boat from any road or town, it's noisy. Cicadas chirr like miniature buzz saws, parrots squabble high above our heads in the jungle canopy, monkeys screech in the distance, frogs croak in the lagoons, and a small bird imitates falling water drops.
It is a concert. Without electricity. Without internet or cell phone.
We are in the Amazon basin for five days during our three-week trip through Ecuador. An experience as intense as the smell of freshly ground coffee. Fiery sunsets, swimming in a lagoon with caimans, night hikes through the jungle, baking bread with indigenous people. No emails, no voicemails, no notifications. Just be. Here and now.