journey to the centre of the earth - with orchids!

Well, as some of you may know, we are far from Ecuador, both in time and location, but the stories roll ever onward.

As for impressions of a country, with Ecuador I find myself at a bit of a loss. We spent a scant two weeks in the country, most of that in or around the capital of Quito. Quito was a great city, but it's hard to form an opinion on an entire country from one city, especially when the country differs so much - tall mountains, remote jungle, gorgeous coastline.

Even though we only experienced the area around the capital, we tried to take in as much of the people and food as possible, as we had in previous countries. The people were, unsurprisingly, warm and helpful. The hostel that we stayed at was run by a family whom we got to know by name in our time there. They told us the best restaurants to try and kept us entertained when the regular afternoon rains kept us indoors.