La Comida en el Ecuador

Ahem ~ did you catch that Spanish title?  Thanks to our trip, I am sooooo fluent in Spanish now.  NOT!  We had such aspirations of learning Spanish during the months leading up to the trip ~ I bought 6 weeks of Spanish lessons, I had a Daily Spanish Word coming into my EM, and I even bought a translation app for my Crackberry!  But all to no avail ~ we never used ANY of it.  Thank God for Google Translate!

But I digress ~ let's talk about food.  Ecuador seemed so much like Mexico to me, that for the first couple of days, I kept asking for SALSA.  But they don't DO salsa ~ they serve Aji sauce.  With POPCORN next to it!  We became Aji aficionados because we all (except Anabel) like really hot food.  And we discovered that Aji sauce is good on EVERYTHING.  Even on things that aren't SUPPOSED to have Aji, evidenced by the crazy looks we got when inappropriately asking for it.  Oh well ~ we're Gringos.

Ecuadorian food is DELICIOUS.  Lots of soups, empanadas, potatoes, plantains, cheese, fish, pork, and chicken.  The beef was not so good, and we tried it several times.   My personal favorite were the soups and empanadas ~ especially the CHEESE empanadas.  My pants KNOW I liked them a lot.

As for the boys, their favorite food was their BEER.  Ecuadorian Pilsener to be precise.  There was NO substitute for that! 

So I've put together a collection of us eating and drinking ~ please click here to view those pictures.

And yes ~ we ALL stayed Healthy and Happy the whole trip!

Our Hotels in Ecuador

I must begin by giving full credit to Gate1 Travel gate1travel.com for their excellent choice in hotels.  Since this was a package bus tour, and we had ZERO experience with travelling on a set bus tour, we had no control over where we'd be staying, and really didn't know what to expect.  Websites CAN be deceiving ...  But we were very pleased! 

The only change that we'd make is to stay at a place longer than one day.  It's not as relaxing having to pack up and move every day ~ yes, we'll admit that we're spoiled!

It's also hard to REALLY see all of the different sites because the time is so controlled.  However, doing a bus tour is a great way to get a nice overview of an area and then know where you want to explore further in the future. 

In case you want to really check out the places we stayed, here are links to the hotel websites ~

Hotel Quito:  http://www.hotelquito.com/

Cabanas del Lago in Otavalo:  http://www.cabanasdellago.com.ec/english/pages/index.php

Termas de Papallacta in Papallacta:  http://www.termaspapallacta.com/

Casa del Suizo in Punta Ahuano (Amazon):  http://www.casadelsuizo.com/eng/hotel.php

Hacienda Manteles in Patate:  http://www.haciendamanteles.com/

Click here to see our pictures of these hotels ~

Another great trip!

... with more great friends!  We feel so blessed!

After our epic trip to Tanzania and Egypt in 2010 (http://ancientsafari.blogspot.com/), I didn't think we'd travel again for several more years.  But last April when Dennis said "My 60th year will begin this November ~ let's not wait until next year and GO ON MY BIRTHDAY TRIP NOW", who was I to argue?  Of course, the icing was slathered on the cake when we discovered that our good friends, Robb and Anabel, were ALSO planning a trip to Ecuador to celebrate THEIR 60th birthdays (Robb's TRUE birthday was actually the day we arrived!).  The synchronicities were just too great to ignore, so within 48 hours Robb and Anabel were booked on our bus tour and we started our planning.

All of the credit for this trip AGAIN goes to Dennis.  He is SUCH a Master Travel Planner ~ all I have to do is pack and show up.  How blessed am I?

So it is with great joy that I manage all of our pictures and videos and create not only this blog, but a full-on DVD production of each of our trips.  If you're ever in our neck of woods, come on by and allow us to share our 3-DVD production of Tanzania, and the 2-DVD production of Egypt. 

Bring your toothbrush.

NEXT POST?  I'll start with the lovely hotels we stayed at during our interior of Ecuador bus tour.