Ian's not feeling too well today, very weak and a sore throat, chills so I went out for supplies in the morning. So far today I've been posting to the blog and Ian's been sleeping a lot and watching Myth Busters on Discovery in English about sea sickness. Appropriate.
The entrance to this gigantic supermarket/department store. The guard told me no photos in the store, too bad as it was all fascinating!
Entrance to the shopping center that has the entrance to the MegaMaxi. I had no idea there was a market here on the second floor, just thought I'd take a look inside the building.
Don't really know what this is, but a helpful fellow shopper said I could eat it like a kiwi. On the receipt it rang up as pitahaya granel. Looking it up on the internet I think it may be Dragon Fruit. Anyone know for sure?
The cheese empanadas that Ian loves, warm from the oven, 5 for $2.63.
3 Kiwis for .77 cents. Papaya .63 cents. The peach nectar, Durazno here in Ecuador, Melacoton in Spain, in the carton is $1.52. The Miami Herald International Edition is at our door in the mornings, nice touch. The grocery bag on the right is to show that they are advertising biodegradable bags and asking people to clean up... it's your planet.
The lobby of the Sheraton, our timeshare, very luxurious and spacious. This
will be the best lodging of our whole trip and we are thoroughly enjoying it!
The Sheraton, white building with small black windows, from our bus stop.
How we managed to pull off a 2 month trip to Ecuador:
First off you need a loving, supportive husband who thinks it's a good thing for his son and wife to broaden their horizons by experiencing life in another country. And who supports his son's birding passion.
Then you plan ahead. Years ago we moved all of our spending to one milage accumulating
credit card, which I hope is still solvent.
To get the most milage points charge everything you can on it, but this only works if you pay off
your balance every month and don't spend more than you have. Hmm,
maybe our government could take a lesson here.
So we were able to fly to Quito on our miles/points we have
accumulated for many years on our credit card. For our first week in Quito we used a
timeshare we traded into from one we own in Orlando. So that's 2 big
expenses minimized right off the bat.
On Friday Ian and I travel by bus, $4 one way for each of us, to
Yanayacu and volunteer there for about a month. The charge for our
stay there is $15 a day for each of us and includes 3 meals a day. Not sure I can feed and shelter the 2 of us in MA for that little.
Here in Quito we've found the food to be extremely cheap and most of
it is grown locally. So far with one meal out and buying produce and fresh bread at the market we are getting by on less than $20/day. This is a no car rental trip, which has been great so far! I've enjoyed not having to navigate a unfamiliar city and I see so much more by walking and taking the bus. We're getting lots of exercise and saving money.
So you don't have to have gobs of money to travel in Ecuador!
Another side benefit, for me, is that I am a tall person here. Everyone my age or older is quite a bit shorter than I am and it's very refreshing.
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