Ecuador: Quito and Tena

After our time in Cotopaxi, we heading back to Quito for a day and a half before making the trip to the jungle. We didn't do all that much...we strolled around the Old Town, checked out some churches, and the highlight...went to the Equator! What's a trip to Ecuador with standing at Latitude 0-0'-0"?

We started taking pictures of this huge cathedral and then found out it was build in the 1900's, so I stopped taking photos.













This one didn't turn out quite like I hoped...finger placement is a little off.



This one is bit more accurate.

The reason we went back to Quito in the first place was to wait for our luggage....and guess what? It came!!!! We were so happy it only took a few days instead of an entire week to get to us. I guess we were lucky! So with our luggage in hand we headed east into the jungle, or rather the secondary jungle. Getting into the heartland of the jungle costs a pretty penny so we settled for the next best thing. The bus ride alone was quite the experience. Have you even taken a bus through South America? It's pretty intense. Most of the mountain roads do not have guards on them and the bus drivers drive the bus like it's a motorcycle...the experience almost cured me of my fear of flying, almost.

We had a little tire trouble...





So Brian took the time to buy a snack from this cute little guy.



Side note - it always amazes me how Coca cola is everywhere...even in the jungle of Ecuador!

Our day and a half in Tena included jungle exploring, river swimming, and animal watching.

Peter, we took these monkey photos for you.















Porcupine







Termite nest

Jungle trees

Hors devours - popcorn and salsa...random, but good.

We went on a jungle stroll the next morning before leaving for the mountains again. We had to get on another bus, but luckily the ride was only 4 hours so it wasn't too bad.

Next stop was Banos, where we had an amazing time! Banos is situated right below an active volcano, and while we were there it was smoking...scary. It was an awesome place and we had far too much fun while we were there. Stay tuned for the next segment of the trip...