ECUADOR ADVENTURE 2022

toukokuuta - kesäkuuta 2022
  • Travel with the Wicks
GALAPAGOS & AMAZON BASIN Lue lisää
  • Travel with the Wicks

Luettelo maista

  • Ecuador Ecuador
  • Kolumbia Kolumbia
  • Kanada Kanada
Luokat
Valokuvaus
  • 28,3tajetut kilometrit
Kuljetusvälineet
  • Lento22,4tkilometriä
  • Kävely-kilometriä
  • Patikointi-kilometriä
  • Polkupyörä-kilometriä
  • Moottoripyörä-kilometriä
  • Tuk tuk-kilometriä
  • Auto-kilometriä
  • Juna-kilometriä
  • Bussi-kilometriä
  • Matkailuauto-kilometriä
  • Karavaani-kilometriä
  • Neliveto-kilometriä
  • Uima-kilometriä
  • Melonta/Soutu-kilometriä
  • Moottorivene-kilometriä
  • Purjehdus-kilometriä
  • Asuntolaiva-kilometriä
  • Lautta-kilometriä
  • Risteilyalus-kilometriä
  • Hevonen-kilometriä
  • Hiihtäminen-kilometriä
  • Liftaus-kilometriä
  • Cable car-kilometriä
  • Helikopteri-kilometriä
  • Paljain jaloin-kilometriä
  • 57jalanjäljet
  • 15päivää
  • 434valokuvat
  • 136tykkäykset
  • Roses!

    31. toukokuuta 2022, Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    For me, a trip to the rose farm was not on my list of cool things to do. I would rather go to a hardware store, but that wasn’t on the itinerary. I did listen to what they said though. This particular farm was 20 acres and had a little over 2 million rose bushes. From cutting to on the store shelves in North America is usually 72 hours. You make the Ecuadorian average wage of 450 per month working here. You can make more on holidays as there is overtime due to demand.
    Roses, roses, and lots more roses! This place was amazing! The colors, the process and the finished product ready to ship in less than 72 hours!
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  • We love to shop!

    31. toukokuuta 2022, Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Liz and I could hardly wait to get to the market and time to browse. Well it wasn’t quite time to browse, more like we were on a mission! We only had 1 hour and 10 minutes! This market was huge and called for some serious bargaining! What fun we had! You might have guessed - I bought a Panama hat!
    The boys of course thought it was too long of a time…we needed 2 hours so too short for us!
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  • El Molimo Ranch

    31. toukokuuta 2022, Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    This is a historic dairy ranch that the 8th generation of this family are keeping with the traditions. They still make their own beer. There is a means to power the mill located under the floor. He called it a turbine, but I can’t figure out what powered the turbine.
    There is a chapel on the property that the Jesuits built , and part of the original Inca trail exposed!
    We were treated to lovely lunch of 5 grain soup, baked chicken, potatoes & veggies. For desert fig, cheese & cracker with mint.
    No one left hungry.
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  • Farewell dinner!

    31. toukokuuta 2022, Ecuador ⋅ 🌧 13 °C

    Wow, what a great travel group- we came together like a “family” ! We so enjoyed the time, conversations and laughs we shared with each person in this group. We had a chance to talk to every member of our group and everyone contributed to our sense of belonging. That doesn’t always happen and we all felt fortunate to have to have met each other.Lue lisää

  • Trip home

    31. toukokuuta 2022, Kanada ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

    Our trip home began with an early start today, 1201am. We arrived at the airport 1235 fell into the line for check-in. The girl who checked us in, was to say at least bad at her job! She printed the boarding passes upside down, forgot to give us our next two boarding passes and as we found out later she tagged our suitcases wrong!

    The four of us headed for security, We all cleared easily and headed for the gate. They start boarding and my name is called. Tom and I go up & we’re told one of us with both passports must go to open my suitcase for immigration- a spot check they said! Tom insisted on doing this deed.

    He is gone a fair amount of time; when he finally comes sauntering up. We are now the last passengers to board! He said my suitcase, which was tagged wrong, was opened and “felt thru” and then closed and Tom was allowed to leave. That was issue number 1!

    We arrived at 5 am to Bogotá & had to clear security once again. It was found that Tom had water in his bag, tsk tsk that must be dumped! (Ecuador allows water in carry on - Bogotá does not. Next I went thru and had my carry on completely emptied. Why? I had a small nail file in my makeup bag - it was unceremoniously taken away from me! It has been in my carryon this whole trip and others!

    We then went to the lounge to wait for our next flight 3 1/2 hour later. Time to board.

    Ok we are it to Toronto! We have an hour to deplane, clear customs, pick up bags, clear security and get to the gate! Liz and Alan have Nexus which helped them; we just did the super fast walk to get ahead of the crowd. Al was chosen for random testing, we got the green for go stickers! Considering all obstacles we all did well and were sat in our seats by 535! On our way home!
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  • Final thoughts!

    1. kesäkuuta 2022, Kanada ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    So we made it home. Rob was kind enough to give us a rides home. Now to get to the laundry,

    Thoughts of the trip and Gate 1

    Generally we had a great time but are totally exhausted! It would be nice to spend another day in the Galapagos and also Quito, Next time I would give Guayaquil a skip.

    In the Galapagos it was disappointing not to see more of the blue footed boobies, we saw 4! We did not see a penguin! But boy did we see sharks! They are very proud how they have repopulated the giant tortoises and marine iguanas were plentiful.

    The lodge we stayed at was unique as we were in tents and the food was excellent as was the service. Gabby took very good care of us, unfortunately the weather was quite cool, very humid and damp! We were in the cloud forest after all! I would have preferred more sun and closer to the beach.

    The hot springs were a welcome break and I could have stayed another night just to catch-up on sleep!

    Sacha Lodge in the amazon provided every comfort you could imagine. Again the food was excellent the views were outstanding. We were disappointed that it was somewhat difficult to capture animals of the jungle in a closer view for pictures. You needed an eagle eye or at least a good telescope! We had neither! Our new best friends were the rubber boots they lent along with umbrellas! Hiking, canoeing, climbing everything was done with our precious rubber boots.

    The Ecuadorian people are friendly and warm. Happy to have you experience their country and culture. Quito is situated in very challenging geography. She is located high in the Andes on steep mountain sides. Canyons separate neighborhoods and you are either going up a steep hill or going down. This all makes traffic a constant consideration.
    The whole country is clean. No garbage anywhere

    We really enjoyed the walks and touring we did in Quito, just wished we had another day to give more time for browsing!

    Our Gate 1 guide Marco did an outstanding job of introducing Ecuador to us. He is a local naturalist who has been working with tourists for more than 10 years. His knowledge of indigenous culture as well as the history of Ecuador added depth to our knowledge and understanding.
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