An entire species went extinct yesterday. Lonesome George was the last known Pinta Island tortoise, one of eleven remaining Galapagos Island tortoise species. Until his discovery about forty years ago, scientists thought his species was already extinct. But then someone found George walking by himself on Pinta Island and brought him to the Charles Darwin… Read More »
October 30-November 1, 2007
Days 762-764
Shortly after I left Quito, I crossed the equator for the last time on my trip. The vast majority of my trip so far had been spent in the southern hemisphere, but it was time to move on to the north on my continual trip home. I'm really… Read More »
October 29, 2007
Day 761
At least a dozen times in my travels in South America, the topic of the Mitad del Mundo ("The Center of the Earth," as the equator near Quito is known) has come up with other travelers. Inevitably, the person tells me how great it was that they got to… Read More »
October 28, 2007
Day 760
I hadn't been to a soccer game for a long time, so today I went with some people from my hostel to see the game that South America loves. The scene outside the stadium was chaotic as usual, and none of us could even figure out so much as… Read More »
October 27, 2007
Day 759
I took a walk today for about forty-five minutes uphill to the edge of town where the Teleferico line began. The gigantic ski lift-like contraption took people over 1500 meters above the city to a hill over 4000 high to… Read More »
October 26, 2007
Day 758
Leigh had high ambitions for the day and took the bus back to Quito at 4:00 AM or something ridiculous like that. I didn't want to leave so early, so I opted to sleep in and grab the next transport out of town. The only stipulation was that the… Read More »
October 25, 2007
Day 757
To start out the day, Leigh and I took another look at Laguna Quilatoa, then started walking on the path around the edge of the top of the crater. Right away, we saw a stray dog we had seen last night. One of her eyes was… Read More »
October 24, 2007
Day 756
I took a bus this morning to Latacunga, about two hours south of Quito. The Lonely Planet says it looks "pretty damn cool," but I didn't see what the fuss was about. I met up with Leigh, the Kiwi who had come directly from Tena, to travel around the… Read More »
October 22-23, 2007
Days 754-755
My brief sojourn back into the jungle ended abruptly with a bus ride to Quito, the second highest capital city in the world after La Paz. Making the trip from the jungle to the mountains was like going to a different country as the Spanish language was the only… Read More »
October 18-21, 2007
Days 750-753
My next Ecuadorian stop was a small jungle city called Tena. Walking around Tena brought back lots of memories as it had been nine months since I had been properly in the jungle. The area was hot and humid, the whole region was the greenest of greens, people relaxed… Read More »
