At Home on the Road in Cuenca, Ecuador

Meeting up with expats for Sunday Football at the Inca Cafe
This entry is part 17 of 18 in the series Ecuador

By the time I arrived in Cuenca I was stressed out and beaten down. Though rewarding, traveling through Ecuador had not been easy. I’d been seasick during my spectacular cruise with Ecoventura in the Galapagos Islands; sweaty and smelly in the Amazon jungle at Cuyabeno Lodge; and sardined into a bus full of Ecuadorians, where … Read more

Riding Down The the Devil’s Nose

The train makes a brief stop after descending the Nariz del Diablo for photo ops of the zig-zag tracks that slice the nearly vertical rock outcropping
This entry is part 16 of 18 in the series Ecuador

High in the Andes Mountains, at the point where the Guasuntos and Chanchán Rivers meet, a gigantic rock known as El Nido del Condor (Nest of the Condor) soars more than 6,200 feet. I sat atop this massif, safely ensconced in a leather seat on board what has been dubbed “the most difficult railroad in the … Read more

An Exceptional Welcome in Alausi, Ecuador

Booming tunes of the Cristiana Cristo Rey Band lured me to the entrance of the gymnasium where Quichua celebrated Independence Day
This entry is part 15 of 18 in the series Ecuador

The pickup truck squealed to a stop in front of me and six suit-clad men scrambled out of the open bed. A tall, thin, mustachioed man held out his hand. “Bienvenidos a Ecuador,” he said. Welcome to Ecuador. Surprised, I looked around and realized I was the only white face on the street; it was … Read more