Ecuador!

[T. Brown 1st MRB]

So I arrived right as the girlfriend was starting a 2-week long break, so we jumped right into seeing shit.

The first view was from our apartment balcony; holy shit, she has gotten this view everyday for the past few months, still astounds.

This mountain is the active Pichincha Volcano, last erupted in 1999...covered the city in ash, though apparently there was little other damage.

Next, she took me on this bus tour through the city to an amazing church in the middle of Quito, La Basilica,

Approaching La Basilica

Side view of this church

View of La Virgen de Quito statue on top of El Panecillo

and from there to El Panecillo, a little hill about 2 km from the church that sits 300 meters higher than the city (which is already the highest capital in the world at 2800 meters), where La Virgen de Quito statue sits. From here, you could see EVERYTHING.

Our apartment is somewhere down there...

It's mind-boggling how dense this city can be when stretched along the slopes of volcanoes...

Looking west...or east...one of the two, I can't remember! It was just this view 360 degrees.

Next we spent a few days in Mindo, this tiny little hippy town nestled in the Andes. This was fucking insane...absolutely gorgeous, friendly people (lots of hippies though...), friendly dogs. Definitely a vacation place.

The sunrise view from our bungalow

The ridiculous view every morning over breakfast.

We took this horribly rusted cable car 1000+ meters over a valley between two mountain peaks.

Quarterman's two dogs (seriously look exactly like his dogs!) that accompanied us for 3+ hours in a hike in the rainforesty trails of the Andes...that just made our day. They left us once we got back to our bungalow thing, saw them a few days later outside a house down in the town, never really made sense of it all. They just showed up in the middle of nowhere and followed us. Well, the black one followed, the dalmation one kept running in front and turning around to make sure we were coming. Fucking adorable.

Finally, today we wandered to Parque Metropolitano, saw another fucking insane view of Quito and it's volcano valleys, and fuckin' LLAMAS. Why none of you ever told me llamas were so goddamn cute, I'll never know...

The view from one of the 4 park peaks...this is a 30 minute walk from our apartment. Albeit all up super vertical hills, I was winded by the top, but still WHAT THE HELL why doesn't anyone talk about how gorgeous South America is? Or do they and I just never heard about it?

Lazy ass llama just slumped on its side and started eating like that. SO CUTE.

But then we laughed at it and were all "AWW SO CUTE" and it popped back up all proper like. Llamas...the cats of the camelids!

This was all just this week. I am exhausted, but there is still so much to do. Tonight is the start of Carnival; we're going into Old Town to see what that's going to be about. Apparently tons of kids spraying water at you and this foam and alcohol and...I don't know. It should be fun! I'm also thinking of starting a travel blog and put like ads on it for some sort of revenue or something like that, so I might be doing that next, but for now I'm going to post it like this here where I can fucking talk how I want to because you all rock like that : ) HUGS

[Candy 1st MRB]

Great Photos! Wheres all the cats? The llamas eat em?

[Guest Rune Boone]

waaaw amazing pictures, especially that cathedral in gothic style is amazing!

[J. Hill]

The people eat them..........

[Quarterman 1st MRB]

Thanks for sharing Brown, looks like a neat place to travel//live.

P.S. I want my dogs back!

[Bradley 1st MRB]

Damn, that is some beautiful scenery!

If the reputations of Carnival in South America are anything to go by you won't be disappointed. Glad to see you're having a good time Brown!

[T. Brown 1st MRB]

Great Photos! Wheres all the cats? The llamas eat em?

I don't know! I've seen TWO cats the entire time here, both were nasty to me. There are stray dogs here and there in Quito, all over the place in Mindo...the cats just stay hidden from them I guess.

HILL nono they don't eat cats here! They DO eat guinea pigs though! It's a fuckin delicacy. I haven't tried it yet...building up my stomach to take it. Got one day of food poisoning in Mindo after eating at a tiny "Mexican" restaurant that was kind of just a person's living room converted into a restaurant. Learned my lesson there.

I am going to try it eventually, and other street meats. Apparently once a year (or before going back to America/Britain/Ireland?), everyone who lives here takes a parasite pill to kill whatever they get, so I figured if I'm already going to have 'em, might as well enjoy getting 'em : )

[K. Reyes]

I would've been scared shitless riding that cable car in that condition, That is a hell of a place, damn gorgeous too ! Reminds me of Silverton Colorado. It's a small miners town up in the Colorado mountains. Place is fucking mind blowing during the fourth of July. The fireworks echoe through the mountians. my uncle also owns a small church house up there. I also would've tried to take those dogs home with me.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Reyes 1st MRB

[Beuting 1st MRB]

OMG the pics are so awesome!

And oh, can i adopt that baby lama?

[Guest]

Great pics Brown. Looks awesome.

[Tate 1st MRB]

Amazing views Brown, keep posting photos Btw you are now on a journey to find both cats. Once found, snap a photo for a prize.

ps the prize is a lap dance from Stone

[Ford 1st MRB]

I've been following your adventure on Facebook, good to see things are going well for you, stay safe!

[K. Swartz 1st MRB]

OMG did you see that Ford just drive by, looking nice man.

Maybe need a wash!!!