Chris and Chris Break Free

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been in Mindo for almost a week.  Once we got settled, our days quickly fell into a comfortable routine:   We wake up around 7:00 to the sounds of roosters cock-a-doodle-doing and to the sight of exotic birds and hummingbirds just outside our bedroom window.… [Read more]

We arrived in Mindo yesterday without any problems.  The bus station was pretty quiet at 8:00 in the morning and the biggest menace we faced was two women who were Jehovah’s Witnesses who tried to preach their message to us.  … [Read more]

Today we finished our Spanish lessons, at least for now.  I completed six days, four hours each day of one-on-one lessons; Chris completed three days.  We learned the basics and we both feel we havet a good foundation from these lessons. … [Read more]

On Sunday, we went to “la mitad del mundo” – the middle of the earth.  Ciudad La Mitad del Mundo is a tourist complex set up on the site where, in 1736, French explorer and scientist Charles-Marie de la Condamine made his final calculations to determine the precise equatorial line.… [Read more]

Chris is back in the land of the living. Thank goodness! Yesterday we ventured out together, the first time for Chris since Tuesday.  We decided to stay relatively close to the hostel, just in case.  … [Read more]

We have been living at the Traveller’s Inn for over a week now and plan to stay until Wednesday. This is our first time in a hostel and we didn’t really know what to expect. We selected this particular hostel mainly based on reviews we read online.… [Read more]

Yesterday I went on my first run. After a week in Quito, I feel fully acclimatized and I was curious to see if I would feel a difference running at this altitude (2800 m / 9800 ft).  It wasn’t going to be an accurate test seeing as I haven’t run (I hate to admit this) in about six weeks.… [Read more]

This afternoon, I decided to walk to Carolina Park. We passed by this park last Saturday when we took the bus to Otavalo and at the time I was very surprised by the size of the park and by the number of people in it, not to mention all the runners.… [Read more]

Today I was solo as Chris has been hit with a case of gastro – at least that is what we think it is. We ate exactly the same things yesterday, but by the end of the day, he was finished – fever, headache, body aches, and of course diarrhea. … [Read more]

Today we decided on our Spanish school and signed up for a week of one-on-one lessons – 20 hours each.  There is a plethora of Spanish schools in Quito and it can be a daunting chore to research all the options available and an even more daunting task to make a decision. … [Read more]