From the top of the basilica Stu finds his favourite laundry shots.

The Basillica like most Basillica’s have gargoyles to drain the rain water from the steep roof. These however are very special gargoyles as they represent the animals of Ecuador. They represent the Amazon, the Andes and the Galapagos Islands. The gargoyles below are animals from the Galapagos. The center photo from the right has penguins, pelicans, frigates, blue and red footed boobies, masked boobies

As we leave Lucas our guide needs a volunteer to wear the traditional mask of the indigenous people of Ecuador. Greg steps up. The mask has faces on both sides so you can see who is behind you 🙂

Off we go to see more of Quito. In the Historical Center the police ride seques. Carlos our guide challenges us to throw a coin into a frogs mouth to win a free ice cream cone. We find a spot for lunch and Greg needs to use the facilities. The door comes up to his shoulder and the toilet has the stairs above it. Must watch the head. Quito has many streets that are flights of steps. Street vendors selling many many items. The fellow below is wielding his machete to take the husks off of coconuts. We enjoy a delicious ice cream and find an interesting sign.

A long day over we are happy to head to bed again.

After we slept for a long time we got ourselves moving and went downstairs for breakfast. In this hostal they charge $5 each for a fruit plate, yogurt, granola, coffee, a choice of tropical juices, eggs what ever way you like, bacon, croissants. Not a bad deal. Too much food for us.

We have booked a free walking tour and head off to the meeting place for 9:30 where we meet Lucas our guide for a 3 hour tour. There is another guest from our hostal their and a couple from Spain. Lucas does he tour in English and Spanish.

Our first stop is the Basilica del Voto Nacional. It is a very large imposing structure visible from most of Quito. It is in the construction process for about 150 years and we are told they believe that if the it is completed the world will end. So they keep going.

From we view the large stained glass windows. At first glance they appear like most churches. After looking closely as Lucas suggests we see that the details are orchids, flower that Ecuador claims to have more than 200 different species in the Amazon rain forests.

We are heading our now for a full day tour so I will finish today later. Bye bye for now.

After 6 hours in the Bogota airport it is finally time for our flight. We follow the signage to our gate which is downstairs. We will be bussed out to our plane.

All four of us are seated in the same row, the very last row of this plane. Not a problem as as we have a seat.

The flying time is only 1 hour and 10 minutes. It seems like no time and we are landing.

We have been trying to communicate with our Hostal regarding transportation and are not sure if we will have a ride waiting for us.

When Leslie connects to the wifi we see that there will be someone waiting. YES!!! Something is working 😉

We pile into the van and get onto the road. It is quite a long drive and we are happy to be arriving in the daylight instead of 12:30am as scheduled. Well sort of.

We arrive at La Rosario and get checked in. We pay, but are not charged for our no show. Not our fault, but not theirs either. We need to make some adjustments in our plan since this snaffu has cost us a day in Quito. It isn’t just a matter of shifting everything by a day because our next destination is Otavalo. We were going there on Saturday because they have a very famous market day there on Saturdays. We really wanted to see that. So if we shift everything a day we will miss the market.

We settle in for a bit and head out for a bit of an explore, then dinner, then back for an early night!!

We were successful. Walked about for 45 minutes or so then found a nice little restaurant fairly close to our hostal. Greg orders something that I forget the name and Stu, Leslie and I order chicken Milanese. This like a chicken schnitzel topped with ham and cheese. It comes with salad and fries. Greg’s arrives and it is gianormous. I think he said it was $6.00 (usd). We thought oh oh what have we got coming??? Sure enough our platters were about the same size. The chicken dishes were $10.00 each. We also ordered beer. Stu a Corona and I a Pilsner. Corona arrived normal sized, but mine was probably 750ml. A BIG BEER!! We managed to make a dent in our meals, but will remember that sharing will likely give us more than enough food.

Settling our bills using credit cards as they accept them and we know that that is not the norm. So will save our cash for the cash only places. We notice that it has started to rain as we leave and shortly after gets heavier and heavier. Thunder too. Thankfully we are close to our accommodation. Our bed is calling loudly. So we are hurrying. 😉

We will have photos for tomorrow. Night night yawn!!

Here are a few photos from our journey. We tried to catch some sleep in the Toronto airport, but all of the seating there are rows of seats with arm rests. Vancouver is the same. Very difficult when delays happen. We saw a woman with 2 sleeping little girls curled up on the floor in the departure lounge. Not an ideal situation.

Our welcoming party back in Toronto. A bit blurry due to the snow and not great aircraft windows. Lots of emergency vehicles with lights flashing.

Having some bevis after getting back to the terminal. At this point we think we are leaving at midnight.

Here are a few of the lounger chairs they have in the Bogota airport, So civilized!! Mind you there are not many, but we managed to score 4.

We booked our flights independently from Greg and Leslie. It is quite a large plane with a 2 3 2 configuration. Stu and I are in row 21, seats A & C. Greg and Leslie are in row 20, seats A & C. Too funny.

Due to the snow in Toronto we were 3 hours late leaving. We had a hour and a half layover in Bogota that been eaten up and then some!! The first flight from Bogota to Quito in the morning is about 6:40am. It looks like we will arrive about 1:30, so no point in finding accomodation. Looks like we will be spending our second night in an airport in less than a year. Boo.

We spend 15 minutes de-icing before we took off. As we were taxing down the runway with increasing speed, we heard a big “BANG” just before we left the ground. YIKES. Not long after takeoff a flight attendant came back to Greg and Leslie to ask if they saw anything fall off of the plane when we heard the big bang. They said they saw nothing, but definitely heard the bang. She acknowledged that it was a big bang. Shortly after that the Captain came on with an announcement that some people on the left side of the aircraft (our side) saw some flames just after the noise. They are in contact with ground crews in Toronto to see if there was any debris left on the runway after we left. He went on to explain that it could be a compressor stall or they wondered if it had something to do with the nose wheel tire!!!! Sounds kind of scary. Hopefully we hear good news from the ground crew soon.

Update from ground staff, no rubber debris on the runway. It seems likely it is the compressor stall. There is a technical team logging on to the aircraft to see if everything looks OK.

7:13 Captain makes an announcement that we are turning around to go back to Toronto as a precaution. The technical team did not find anything, but would still like us to return to Toronto as they feel more confident being in Toronto if anything goes wrong. We should be landing back in Toronto about 8pm. Instructions to follow the cabin crew instructions in preparation for landing. There will be a visual inspection of the engine area when we land before we continue to a gate.

We arrived back in Toronto after doing some circling to burn off fuel. When we did land it was a beautiful smooth landing. 🙂 There is a large contingent of emergency vehicles with lights flashing to greet us. After we taxi close to the terminal the aircraft is examined visually by fire crews.

After returning to the terminal we are told that we will be leaving again at midnight. If we leave at midnight, a six hour flight will get us into Bogota about 6am. The 6:40 flight might be a tight connection.

We are also told that our boarding passes will get us $20 credit towards food. There is a miscommunication as the restaurants only want to give us $15. They relent and treat us well.

The new aircraft we will board is coming from Barbados. It was delayed getting to the gate due to the snow. We are now delayed to 1am. After boarding we do leave the gate just before 1 but do not lift off until 1:35 due to de-icing and taxing to the correct runway, This time no BANG. Nice.

The flight is long, we are very tired and uncomfortable as we try to sleep on the plane. I am not very good at this.

We land in Bogota and as we disembark the plane there are customer service people greeting us with new boarding passes and directions to our next gate. It is 7:30am (ish) and our next flight is 1:35. About 6 hours to kill in the Bogota airport (which is very nice)

I am writing this as we sit in recliner type chairs, much more civilized than the seats with arm rests that make lying down very difficult.

Will post more later with a few cell phone photos

After taking the bus, skytrain and a hotel shuttle, we spent the night at a hotel close to the airport last night. This morning we took the hotel shuttle back to the airport. We have a friend that works for Air Canada (our carrier). I contacted her last night asking if she would be working today, she was 😉 . We plan to meet her for a little visit before our flight. The shuttle from the hotel was running a bit late and even if it was on time it would be tight for us to get our bag tags printed, drop the bags and get through security. Our wonderful friend texted and said she had printed our boarding passes and bag tags also put a magic sticker on our boarding pass that will give us a priority security line. We went through the priority door and entered the security area that was extremely busy. We were thinking this is going to take a while. Next thing we know a security person is holding back the other passengers and letting us in ahead of a very long line. WOW such a magic sticker! Really it was a very MAGIC friend!!!!

We arrived in Toronto to -8C and a wind. We are staying very close to the airport. We get there by taking the airport train to the Value Parking lot. From this station we walk across the parking lot, just 150 steps, but the wind is chilling. We are very happy to be heading to the equator tomorrow. Our hotel is called the Alt. It is a modern hotel with a European feel.

It has a bar and food choices that can be microwaved. Not ideal, but we are not going back outside tonight. We choose a couple of their options and tuck in for the night.

We have seen on the local news that there is a nasty weather system expected for the afternoon rush hour tomorrow. Our flight is scheduled to depart at 3:20pm. Hopefully the storm doesn’t arrive early.

Tomorrow we will meet Greg and Leslie at the airport, after taking the airport train back. We will have an almost 6 hour flight to Bogota, an hour and half layover and an almost 2 hour flight to Quito the capital of Ecuador.

The weather forecast is not looking favourable. The week ahead in Quito has a lot of rain. We did pack the rain jackets, looks like they will not go to waste.

A nice start to this trip 🙂

On February 26, 2019 we are flying to Toronto, the first leg of this new adventure. We will spend the night, meet our friends Greg and Leslie at the Toronto airport and fly to Bogota on our way to Quito Ecuador. We have 5 weeks to explore the mainland of Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. We have a framework of accommodation and flights to the Galapagos. After a couple of days in Quito the capital of Ecuador we will head to Otavalo then work our way south, then west. We will fly to the Galapagos on March 20 and spend the reaming days of our time there. We will fly home on April 1st.

I forgot that I had made a purchase in Barkerville until I found it in my bag.  I bought some “fish” themed measuring spoons.  All of the shop keepers and other employees in Barkerville are in costume and in character.  I took my selection to the counter with an antique cash register, where the young woman hand wrote a bill of sale, carefully wrapped my purchase in brown paper and expertly tied it with string.  All very authentic to the times.  Then I pulled out my credit card to pay and she reached under the counter to pull out the wireless credit/debit machine!!!!   hahahaha.  Can’t get to carried away with anti-technology  🙂

We have our breakfast almost alone in the dining room.  We think that there was only one other room occupied last night.  A larger room with three ladies, who join us in the dining room.  It is scrambled eggs and ham this morning to go along with the usual fruits.

We head back up to pack up our things.  We have the 12 1/2 bottles of wine to pack and to keep cool.  We have ice packs in the hotel freezer to help with that.  We have brought a collapsible cooler as well.  We start packing the bottles in and are not liking that they are clinking together.  hmmmm, what to do???   SOCKS!!!

We pack all of our belongings into the little car.  We are taking more home than we brought with us.  Off we go.

We are heading to Keremeos and the Hope Princeton Highway aka the Crowsnest Highway.

Just before Keremeos we spot another bear

We have another construction delay. This one is really stinking and smokey

Glad to get past this

This is the Copper Mountain Mine. Just chopped off the top of a mountain. Not one of the most scenic views we have had.

Traffic is getting progressively busier.  Once we hit Hope it is very steady in our direction.  Oncoming traffic, long weekend traffic is very heavy.  Glad we planned to be home before this weekend.

We make it home by 1:45pm.  Nice.  Although we have had a wonderful holiday, we will enjoy the holiday weekend from here 🙂

Happy Canada Day everyone!!!

Last night  we went into Penticton to have dinner with our friend Denise who is lived there for a number of years.  She has now sold her house and will be moving shortly.  We meet her a the Barking Parrot Pub.  This is a pub right on the Okanagan Lake in Penticton.  They have all items on their menu for $5.95.  We share some chicken wings and a couple other appies.  Oh yeah, some wine too.  We have a great catch up with her.

This morning we go down for our breakfast.  Today they are serving a spinach quiche, along with the usual fresh fruits and breads.  This is a historic old building.

The lobby

The staircase 🙂

The down side

The upper floor

There are 7 rooms up here

The grand dinning room

The beverage station

The front garden

The other way

After our breakfast we head out for a walk around the charming little town.  I start my tracker a little late 🙂 .  We pass by a small beach that appears to be public, but there are signs indicating that it is privately owned by the church.  You are welcome to use the area if there is no church activity in progress.

Our walk takes us to the Naramata Store where we pick up a newspaper before heading back to the Inn.  Back on our little patio we take our time and do the crossword puzzle and read some of the newspaper before we head back out to taste more wine.

We stop at 3 wineries today.  We begin with La Frenz where we buy a Pinot Noir and their Grand Total Reserve, which is a Merlot, Cab Franc & Cab Sauvignon blend.  We follow that with the nearby Deep Roots.  Deep Roots has a logo that is a corkscrew that has four

screws.  We learn that this represents the four generations of the family that have farmed this land.  The lady serving us is the wife of the 3rd generation, her son the 4th generation is now the wine maker.  They have grown grapes on the land for 25 years but have only recently begun to make wine.  They have a great number of awards since 2012.  We purchase a Merlot and a Syrah.  We travel another short distance to Lake Breeze.  It is early afternoon and we have heard they have a great restaurant and we would like lunch.

Our timing is perfect.  The restaurant is quite busy, but someone is leaving a table with the best view.  We get to see the view without looking through all of the other people.

The food here is amazing.  We order Mussels and an Antipasti with a selection of meats, cheese and other yummy things.  Very nice lunch done, we head into the tasting room.  I already know that we will buy their Meritage as it was the suggested pairing for the Antipasti.  It was very very nice.  We sample their wares and come away with 4 bottles from here.  The prices here are all over the place.  We have paid between $25 and $45 per bottle.  Here our choices are all in the $25 range.

We now have 12 bottles to take home.  We think that is the limit for our tiny car.

We played scrabble this afternoon.  I lost very very badly  🙁

We plan to have dinner up the street at a bistro that is a coffee shop (the one with the peacock) by day and a bistro by night.  We are seated in the outdoor area.  We review the menu as we chat with the server.  He tells us about the chef.  He is happy to be working with him, he loves he approach to food.  We are both ordering an entree, but he describes a specialty of the house, a peanut soup.  It sounds intriguing but I think what we have ordered will be way too much already.  He does bring us a small bowl to share.  It is delicious.  I say, “I need this recipe”  Ahah!!  There is a cookbook.  🙂  He brings us the book to look over.  The dishes look amazing.  A percentage of the proceeds are being sent to the Congo to help children there.  The chef Victor Bongo was born in the Congo.  We decide to buy the book and our server brings the chef out to sign the book.

He asks us where we are from.  We say “Pitt Meadows” expecting a blank look on his face.  But it was not blank, he has a big smile and tells us that he graduated from Maple Ridge Secondary in 2001!!  He confessed he wasn’t the best student, but loved cooking.  His cooking teacher at MRSS personally paid for him to go to culinary school.  He has a great story.   We loved his food and will have enough for lunch tomorrow.  🙂

Prosciutto wrapped halibut

Linguine with chicken and mushrooms in a cream sauce.

Our last night of our Beautiful British Columbia Road Trip was amazing too.  The whole trip has been amazing.  Loving it!!

Homeward bound tomorrow.