Ecuador
Old Town Quito’s Charm: A Whole Lot of It
September 9, 2010 by Renee Blodgett
Quito in Ecuador is the largest and best-preserved old town in Latin and South America, also the first city to be named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. I knew about the old town, I knew about its great food and had heard about its nightlife, but no one told me about its 40+ churches and chapels, 16 convents and monasteries with their respective cloisters, 17 plazas, 12 chapter rooms and refectories, 12 museums and countless courtyards. I could have walked another 10 hours if the sun wasn’t about to take cover and force me into a cafe for something hot to reignite me for the evening.
Over the last decade, the Quito authorities have been engaged in a huge regeneration project. The result has been the transformation of the historic centre and investment has been directed to improving traffic conditions, restoring mansions and streets, building new shopping centres and cultural centres, installing dramatic lighting and providing increased security. Crime has apparently been on the rise, but is not as bad as Guyaquil in the south, where we were told by everyone we ran into, to ‘watch ourselves,’ and not to do this and don’t do that, watch out for…
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The Best of Quito Hotels
September 9, 2010 by Renee Blodgett
Ecuador’s Quito was a pleasant surprise at the end of a glorious trip to a number of pockets of the country, including the coast, the Jungle, the Highlands, and some great Colonial towns along the way. While Quito’s Old Town had me ‘before hello,’ I ended up staying in the New Town, largely for ease of grabbing food at the end of a long ‘walking day,’ 90% of which was spent in Old Town. More on the architecture and history later.
Hotels. Hotels. Hotels. In hindsight, since I wasn’t into a real night life scene my last few days in Ecuador, I wished I had stayed in Old Town. A few suggestions from my walks and from others I spoke to who gave these choices a thumbs up.
The Plaza Grande comes hot on the heels of two hotels inaugurated in the historic centre in: the Hotel El Relicario del Carmen and the Villa Colonna. El Relicario del Carmen is housed within an early 18-century mansion, with a lot of colonial charm and character in its 18 rooms. The Villa Colonna meanwhile, is an intimate and exclusive offering, with only five suites. The attention to detail, whether in the décor…
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Banos’ New Casa del Abuelo Art Hotel & Restaurant
September 8, 2010 by Renee Blodgett
Casa del Abuelo Art Hotel & Restaurant doesn’t look elaborate from the street – in fact, you may not even know it’s a hotel because it’s set in a gorgeous old two story house surrounded by gardens layered with organic vegetables and I swear he said chocolate was growing back there too. (enough to bring me in alone).
It is nestled in Ecuador’s Banos, the town that tourists flock to for massages, facials and the infamous baths (the latter is not worth a trip alone btw, though massages and facials will only run you $20-25).
Chef and proprietor Rodrigo Pacheco is no ordinary chef. Also the executive chef at Cuisine Standard, he spends half his time in Quito and half in Banos, preparing freshly made meals for customers in front of them on a flaming grill right behind an open bar, where meals are served.
It’s a new hotel and here’s the crazy deal they’re offering – $40 for a room, which includes breakfast and Rodrigo’s masterpieces at night. He has trained in France, Spain, Canada, Chile and Ecuador among others and his results do not disappoint.
If you opt not to stay at the hotel (rooms are…
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Children of Chordeleg
August 25, 2010 by Renee Blodgett
Chordeleg is roughly 40 kilometers from Cuenca, and a stone’s throw from Gualaceo, which has a wonderfully authentic fruit and vegetable market. Ecuadorian women wear traditional costumes as a matter of course – typically bright fuscia skirts and warm lemon colored cardigan cotton sweaters, all of their hair in braids.
Children run around freely, their eyes popping with enthusiasm, joy and curiosity. They love to be photographed and actually thank you when you do so.
The small town is known for jewelry, ceramics and leather. According to a bright 18 year old I spoke to who wanted to practice his English, the town imports leather from Chile and other parts of South America and locals hand-make shoes and bags, although mostly shoes. 2-3 blocks of shops are dedicated to shoe stores alone, which may not seem high but for a town of this size, it’s significant.
Children are what made my day in this little stop over. There’s a central square that is surrounded by shops and a gorgeous towering church painted in yellow with Greek-island blue accents. The kids run around the square, play with dogs, eat ice cream cones and stare at you as if to say “let’s…
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Cell Phones Are Alive and Well in Ecuador
August 24, 2010 by Renee Blodgett
Cell phone culture is alive and well in Ecuador. Whether you are walking through a traditional market in a small village or a town like Cuenca in the center of the country where expats and retirees are buying up property (population 50,000), there's a cell phone in hand.
It's not uncommon for older women (mid-forties to early fifties since they tend to marry early here) in traditional costumes to be carrying their grandchildren on their backs and be talking on a cell phone in the middle of a market or on the back of a pick-up truck.
Gualaceo’s Color
August 23, 2010 by Renee Blodgett
Gualaceo’s market in central Ecuador promises to deliver.
Full of lively children, women in colorful clothing, Morochos at 30 cents a pop, pineapple and coconut juice, fruits, vegetables and flowers, you will find yourself trapped for the duration of the day and loving every minute of it.
Encebollado: Ecuador’s National Dish
April 30, 2010 by Eric Ackerson
Hello Travellers! Today we return to the Western Hemisphere and the Republic of the Equator or more commonly called Ecuador. To get there from East Timor we head back across the Pacific in an easterly direction. Ecuador is located in South America and as its name suggests, it lies straddling the Equator in the northwestern corner of the landmass.
Ecuador is a land of incredible biodiversity. In fact, a young Charles Darwin set sail from England on the second voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle to conduct surveys of South America. Upon arriving in the Galapagos Islands Darwin conducted much of the research that would make up his “On the Origin Of Species” and the “Theory” of evolution, specifically dealing with natural selection. This was based on observations he made of endemic species of birds and other animals and fossils throughout the islands that suggested specific adaptation to unique environmental factors. He is possibly the most widely recognized pioneer of the research of evolutionary science.
Ecuador was a colony of Spain from the middle 1500’s till 1830 when it joined the Union of Gran Colombia, as we discussed while visiting Bolivia. In fact, it was from the city of Quito…
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Alpaca Story
February 10, 2010 by Daniel Malin
Coming back from Otavalo last Friday, I convinced my family that I had bought an alpaca. It began as an off-hand remark. I was sitting on the concrete step in front of our house, having dropped my stuff on the bed. As usual, I was drinking from a large bottle of water and looking uncomfortable sitting under the relentless sun. My host-brother, Jonathan, sat down and asked me how it went in Otavalo and whether I had purchased anything. I said that it went really well, and that I had bought some toilet paper, rubber boots, sandals, deodorant, a large animal and shampoo. There was a long pause.
“Did you say you bought an animal?”, he asked.
“Oh yeah,” I responded, “It’s around here somewhere.”
I didn’t think anything of it, other than that it was kind of funny. I was proud of myself for saying something funny in Spanish, since humor is one of the hardest aspects of a language to convey. Humor and navigating a difficult break-up. If you can do both of those things in a second language, then you’re fluent in my book. But I digress.
So some time passed and
Quiet Voices from CGI: Those that Fight the Epic Battle in the Ecuador Rain Forest
September 25, 2009 by Michelle Kraus
Amidst the glitterati and the bustle of the Clinton Global Initiative (“CGI”) are the “quiet voices” of individuals and NGO’s trying to affect change on this planet. This year one remarkable individual comes to mind. It was his maiden voyage into the unchartered waters. His name is Richie Goldman and he has pledged himself to find the money, partnerships and muscle to alleviate the suffering of the people of Ecuador. A relative “newbie” to the philanthropic world in search of like-minded individuals that can help him fund the work of Amazon Watch to fund clinics, bring in medicine and provide clean drinking water. Lawsuits go on for years as this one against Chevron has done. But people continue to get sick as countries posture and lawyers argue.
This man is up against one of the most massive public relations machines of recent times, possibly second only to the tobacco industry’s campaigns. The fact is that Chevron is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on television, radio and Internet ads attempting to create a new image – the leader in clean energy. They want to wipe the slate in the court of public opinion. Ironically,…
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