Southern Migration

Zipping through Ecuador; Baños, Cuenca, & Puerto Lopez

We covered a lot of ground in a pretty short period of time, stopping by the mountain town of Baños, the colonial city of Cuenca, and finally a couple days on the coast in the fishing town of Puerto Lopez. Lots of moving, but we managed to absorb quite a bit throughout.

A view (from the bus) of the volcano that towers over Baños. This was either before or just after we were stuck behind a rock slide for half an hour. Wah.

The roof-top terrace at our hostel in Baños. Not too shabby. The town was flanked by rolling mountains like this all around. Pretty stunning.

This picture gives a pretty good idea of the tone of Baños, especially during our first afternoon there when everything seemed magical. The back of this truck was full of kids rolling around in blankets, plus this puppy. Too cute. There were also people with little stands selling candy and taffy everywhere. It was like a dream.

Plus, there was a night-time carnival with all sorts of wacky games. Yes, please.

Torey and I teamed up on Nealon and whooped his ass at fusbol. Or maybe he won...I can't remember.

Maybe they live it up in Baños because they are always at the risk of a violent volcanic eruption destroying their town.

Triumphant shot at the bottom of a waterfall. This was part of a bike ride through the mountains (we hitched a ride for the uphill part back to town).

We took this crazy party bus thing up to a lookout point in the hopes of seeing the volcano making some fire or something, but it was too cloudy.

We did see a nice view of Baños at night, though.

Some cool ladies hanging out by their house. A view from the bus en route to Cuenca.

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but part of the ride to Cuenca was through the most amazing mountainous countryside with little farms and villages, and sheep and pigs and donkeys everywhere. It was beautiful.

Ruins of a fortress in the middle of Cuenca. Sorry..I guess I should remember the name but I'm not that into ruins. Still a nice spot though.

A paper lantern used for Independence Day celebrations in Cuenca (which only happen in early December). It would have been cool to see a bunch of these floating around. Next time.

One of the displays at the medical history museum in Cuenca...a really cool place. I also have a picture of a petrified baby but I'll spare you that.

Some cool street art in Cuenca. I like how it's on such a fancy wall.

Little known fact: the "Panama Hat" is actually manufactured in Ecuador, and we went to a factory in Cuenca where they make them. Nealon bought this one, which has the smallest brim I have ever seem on a hat ever.

You should know by now I have a problem when it comes to taking pictured of puppies and kittens. It's awful. What's wrong with me?

I bought a dollar's worth of flower petals from this lady. Why? Just look at her! Wouldn't you have done it, too?

More street art. I like how this one is layered with two different pieces on top of each other.

Even though we only spent one full day in Cuenca, we managed to pack a lot in, including finishing out our time by sneaking into a Manu Chau concert which was awesome! 

Skip forward to beach time. This was the road from our hostel to the main part of town, past a bunch of fishing boats.

I also can't resist the beach sunset shots. I should work for a greeting card company. It's pathetic.

Fishermen pulling in their catches. We saw a pile of baby hammerhead sharks in the mix here, probably not super legal or PC but oh well.

We took a boat to visit Isla de la Plata, home to many of the same species that visit the Galapagos Islands (dubbing it "the Poor Man's Galapagos"). Here's a Blue Footed Boobie. We saw so many boobies on that island. 

Here's a view of more of the Island. Pretty spectacular. Our guide was a leathery dude named Cherry. He was pretty cool.

A sea turtle hanging out by the boat. He was eating watermelon rinds that Cherry threw him. 

Here's us for another beach sunset. I was pretty proud that we nailed the timing on this with my camera. 

This was an amazing artist's book that I saw at the hostel at the beach. I forget the name of it now...I wrote it down somewhere. Pages and pages of intricate text and illustrations. Super inspiring and amazing.