Vacation part II (of probably III)

we left off our story with adam not dying on the precipitous descent from above Banos, Ecuador.

from Banos, we headed over to Puyo and Tena on the edge of the Amazon--an area called Oriente.  We stayed on the Rio Napo river which is the longest navigable tributary of the Amazon.  It was as you would expect humid, mosquito filled, and a hut at the lodge we stayed at was home to a large tarantula. Ugh.  See all previous posts regarding my feelings about spiders.

Truthfully, a lot of this part of the trip was not exactly what we had in mind...rather than hash that shit out, here are some pictures of a part we both really enjoyed--white water rafting on the Jactunyacu River with our river guide Cesar (who, as it turns out, was the son of our driver and neither knew until the night before the other one was part our trip!) Total small world syndrome.  It was quite the adventure floating down the river, watching people bathe and pan for gold along the edge with rock walls covered in orchids lining the edge of the river. From those walls, our safety kayaker, Diego, plucked this orchid for me:

We then drove thousands of feet back up into the Andes to go to the Termas de Pappallacta.  LOVE ME SOME THERMAL BATHS.  We soaked a bit, ate delicious food, and hiked up a hill behind the termas to get back into nature again. There's a public area and the hotel area and the hotel area is MUCH nicer.

The next day, we headed north, past Quito and beginning the northern part of the adventure.  It was New Year's Eve.  there will be no discussion of that here. NYE gets its own blog post.  Suffice to say it was a riot.  We stopped along the way in Peguche to see some weavers and buy hand made textiles and presents. it took great restraint to not purchase every rug in sight.

This is Hacienda Pinsaqui, where we spent the night, where Simon Bolivar brokered peace between Columbia and Ecuador, and where i want to live when i grow up:

Like i said...all about Hacienda Pinsaqui and NYE in another post.  Having survived festivities, we headed up to a crater lake.  Please note the altitude listed and let me clarify for you that hiking at this altitude is not like hiking in Anchorage or anywhere in Washington, unless you are going up Rainier.  It hits you in a different way, a way that says you are clearly a lazy human who forgot to go to the gym for the six months before this trip and should be damn glad she didn't try to hike the Inca Trail in Peru in this lazy a$$ condition. PS--especially with that pesky respiratory infection she picked up the week before leaving Anchorage and for which she was huffing on an inhaler most of the trip.

Hats in the Otavalo Market.

After not dying on the hike, we went to Otavalo and bartered our way into more art before heading back to Quito. By bartering, i mean cutting everything down by 60% and refusing to pay more than half the original asking price. period. Like 175 worth of something shouldn't be more than 75. wish i could do this in america, too. hear me now Target, hear me now.