Jambelí

I hadn't originally planned on visiting Jambelì, but I´m sure glad I did. While at my hostal in Cuenca, I sat down to eat breakfast next to a nice German girl who invited me to go to the beach. I would have stayed another day, but it was raining in the mountains and sunny along the coast that day, so I agreed to go. Jambelì is a small island off the coast of southern Ecuador that can only be reached by a 30 minute boat ride. Its was extremely mellow and very rustic. Apparently it has had electricity for less then a year. I think that the thing I liked best about Jambelì was that we were the only foreignors on the island. We found a nice place where you can rent cabanas for five dollars a night. Angel, who worked there, agreed to take us out into some mangrove swamps in his canoe for a small price.

Our kitchen:

Our house:

Transport to Jambelì:

Mangroves:

Cuenca

Well, its been a while since I´ve written anything on here. I left Guayaquil Tuesday morning for Cuenca. It was a five hour bus ride, pretty much uphill the whole way. Cuenca is everything that Guayaquil isn't: a clean safe attractive old colonial city way up high in the mountains. I spent most of my time there exploring the city. At one point I hiked up what seemed like 500,000 steps to a nice lookout. I also took a side trip to Ingapirca, an Inca archeological site with some nice hiking oppurtunities.

Ingapirca:

More pictures from Guayaquil

Cool Wildlife in a downtown park:

Guyaquil:

Waterfront Promenade: El Malecon 2000:

Outside of my hotel:

Guayaquil

Guayaquil is a gritty and not particularly attractive port city. Its cool though. I didn´t expect it to be anything spectacular. I was actually pleasently suprised by what I found. I´ve spent most of the day wandering aimlessly through the city. It has, among other things, a small park with iguanas and giant tortuses from the Galopogas Islands. It also has a nice inner-harbor type waterfront promenade.I´ll be moving on to Cuenca tommorrow.

Here's The Plan (More or Less)

I'll be flying into Guayaquil Ecuador, heading south sort of along the coast to Lima, Peru, then heading east, over the Andes, and down into the Amazon Basin. I'll be flying home from Santa Cruz Bolivia, I have forty-five days to make the trip.

I'm still in Baltimore

Thanks to my brother Sam for telling me how easy it is to do this. . . looking forward to leaving Monday morning. Thanks to Laura for taking me to the airport in DC. Hope to see you all Saturday night.