I'm back from a wonderful vacation. My father came down to visit me for a week in site. I don't think he could have picked a better time to be in Paraguay since he was able to experience the one week we call Fall in this country. Prior to that it was scorching summer, and now it is very cold winter. During his stay in site we were able to visit the neighbors and give him a flavor of Paraguay. We did some cooking with the neighbors (we made Chipa Guasu, which he agrees is the best cornbread in the world). After his brief stay with me we headed to Asuncion for a day to give him a taste of the big city and from there we headed to Ecuador. What a wonderful country. We landed in Quito, which is located up in the mountains and the thin air was a pleasant surprise after the thick air of Paraguay. The next day we headed down to Tena, the capital of the Napo province where we stayed at an ecolodge for 3 nights. We explored primary Amazon rainforest, went to waterfalls, a butterfly conservatory, a canoe ride down the Napo river. From there we headed back north to the Mindo area to visit a cloudforest. It was absolutely magical. The number of birds, especially hummingbirds, was exceptional. We also were able to hike around the forest there. The difference between the cloud forest and the rain forest is astonishing. While the rainforest is muggy and very buggy with huge trees, the cloud forest was more stunted in it's tree growth (though by all means not small) and everything was covered in epiphytes. Plants growing on plants growing on other plants. In the cloud forest the mornings are clear and then after 12 the clouds roll in and enshroud the whole forest in a mist. The bugs are not as ever-present as in the rain forest and we were able to see many more birds. Also, it was rather chilly in the cloud forest due to it's altitude.
After our trip through the cloud forest we headed to Otavalo, a town about 1.5 hours outside of Quito known for it's large market of indigenous goods. The main square was packed with stall after stall of goods made by indigenous (though it seems that more and more of the items were made outside of the country). None the less, we bought our fair share of
recuerdos and then headed back to Quito for one last night.
It was a great trip, though more time was needed...at least another week or two. For such a small country, it's diversity makes for much to visit.
I will post a couple pictures on the blog, but we are creating a link to all the pictures and videos which I will post when ready.
Mist rising off of the Napo river in morning.
Morpho butterfly. Don't worry, the butterfly was not killed and flew off. These things lazily glide all over the rainforest.
Michael in front of a giant Cebo tree. These trees are huge and house all types of plant and animal life in their canopy.
The cloud forest once the clouds roll in.
A wall of green in the cloud forest.
Blue Jay in cloud forest.
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