Cassandra and David Rolph's Website

We went to Ecuador to meet up with Dave's parents who were
finishing up another long time trip. Ecuador has 3 pretty distinct
area: The Coastal Area that we did not visit, The Mountainous area
characterized by lots of volcanos where we spent most of our time and
the rainforrest area which contains forrest and tributaries to the
Amazon river.

We arrived in Quito stayed the night and then proceeded immediately
to Banos. It turns out our timeshare swap netted us a little house in a
pretty exlusive place called Luna Runtun. But our house was not part of
the main resort 15 minutes up a pretty steep, muddy, unlit path. Turned
out to be fantastic though.  Can imagine what would have happened
if we arrived in wheelchairs or on crutches though.

Looking down on Banos

Our resort was right by a volcano, which we heard every night. But
we never saw it due to cloudy conditions the whole time we were there.

The closest we ever came to seeing the volcano. Note the lantern
Dave's Dad is carrying.  We used it to get back to our room if it
was after dark.

In 1999 Banos was evacuated due to volcanic activity. Truth be
known, the danger of volcanic erruption was probably one of the reasons
we got our house in the exclusive resort so easily and cheaply. Here is
the
official route to take in the event of an erruption.

For the Spanish scholars amongst you who have worked out that Banos
is the Spanish for bathroom, it is named after the natural hot volcanic
baths there.

A delicious roast pig in the Banos market. The market was
fantastic, with all kinds of bizarre fruits and vegetables and lots of
variations ont he ones we already know.

Roast Guinea Pig is a delicacy in Ecuador! We all wanted to try it.
We saw it on our first day in Banos and decided to put it off to
another day (a day we hadnt just stuff down a pile of the pork from the
previous picture). We never saw guinea pig again.

Buying some incredibly cheap locally crafted goods. US$ 8 for a
really nice wool jumper.

Ridig on a scenic railway. Its still a working train freight
service, though it seems to be mostly dominated by tourist cargo, most
of whom sit on the roof.

Heading down out of the mountains towards the Amazon forrest. This
river will flow into the Amazon many miles away

Here we are in the forrest. We went to a variety of forrest
locations. It is very exotic. But we couldnt help feel that man has
very much encroached on the forrest.

The best part of the forrest we went to was by canoe. It was real
old
growth forrest with lots of interesting fauna. We didnt see so many
animals though. They were there, but keep away from people. How we
failed to tip out of the canoe I dont know. I was very sure we were
going to. It was _very_ unstable.

The reason its called rainforrest.

On the way back to Quito at the end of the trip a river had somehow
opened up across our road and our bus got bogged in the middle of it.
David spent an hour in water up to his thighs helping to get the
bus out. Cassandra would not permit photos of that event :-(

A monkey plays with Cassandra. Monkeys ruled that town, agressively
dominating even the largest dog we saw.

After the Amazon we went straight back to Quito. It was a great
holiday. Though most of the tourists we met were there for 6 months not
1 week. That was a bit depressing.

It was our first trip to South America. Dave's parents, who have
been there for about 6 months in the last 2 years declare it to be the
"the place" to visit. And we can see that from this short visit.