Amy and Ian's Most Excellent Ecuadorian Adventure: Merry from Mindo

Merry Christmas from Ecuador!

Warm and sunny here all morning, it may rain this afternoon. That
seems to be the usual for Mindo, we're in the cloud forest in the
Andes with spectacular views everywhere.

Ian and I have been traveling now since November 15th, it'll be 6
weeks on Saturday and what a wild adventure we've had so far! We have
8 days until my friend Janet, one of the Waybacks, so named because
we've known each other since way back in the early 70's, comes to
Ecuador. Janet will arrive January 3rd and travel with us until we all
head back to New England on January 15th.

Looks like our adventure to Ecuador is going to extend itself to
Washington DC. Joe won't be in Medford when we get back home, starting
January 5th he's been assigned to a temporary detail in DC, not to
exceed 120 days, a long time! We've been apart way too long already,
so Ian and I are working on a way to go to DC for most of the time Joe
is there. Ian doesn't have any commitments until his banding job
starts up again for Spring migration on April 15th, so I'm hoping
we'll be in DC from end of January until April.

As for now, Mindo is lovely and we'll be here until we go somewhere
else. Not sure where that will be, but on January 3rd I'll be in Quito
to pick up Janet and then on to... maybe Otovalo? Town of weaving and
beautiful fabric.

We've been very lucky to meet Gary and Karen, Americans that are now living in Mindo and like birding. Our hotel owners introduced us and they've taken Ian, and sometimes me, birding every day we've been here, it's been great! This photo is of land they've purchased here in Mindo and are presently building a road to the house site.

Mirador Rio Blanco, an astounding view, this photo doesn't do it justice.

Orchid.

Hummingbird, but I don't know which one as Ian is off birding with Gary and Karen. He's seen 65 different species of Hummingbirds on this trip. We have one species in MA....

The main street in Mindo, there really aren't too many more, just some side streets. People were partying hard last night though after Christmas midnight mass.