lights out

Quito, Ecuador

...was a bit dull. It didn't help that Riley's jet lag combined with my energy-zapping cold made us quite the lethargic duo. Though the city did provide us with many public art climbing opportunities. And at the official GPS confirmed equater play with gravity. After a few days, we made a dash for the coast to the "Ruta del Sol". This "Path of the Sun" proved to be quite the misnomer since the fishing villages, surf towns and hyped-up beaches were cloudy, rainy, and dreary. Due to national energy shortages, many towns along the coast shut off electricity and water during daylight hours, furthur dimming (yeah pun!) our Ecuadorian experience. Though we had all the fresh fish our hearts desired. What the equatorial shores lacked in sunny beachline, it did make up for in cheap food. Ceviche.

He balanced the egg on a nailhead and got a diploma for it. Pff, big deal.

Manta, Ecuador

Seagulls that can kick your ass

Puerto Lopez, Ecuador

a friendly local shows off what's for dinner

he knows some Spanish

Montañita, Ecuador

The muddy streets of Montañita, and the only picture I took of the place

Stay tuned for Peru and the sun we were promised goddammit...

hey boy.

As agreed upon months ago, my friend Riley and I met at the equator (Ecuador). He will be traveling with me for the next month through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile.

Stay tuned for sleepy Quito and the Ruta del Sol...

smells like it hurts

I took a tour of a coffee plantation in the fertile Magdalena Valley in central Colombia. At the end, I got my very own "diploma". Overpriced, but informative. They export the good beans and the crappy ones stay in the country, usually to make instant coffee. The season this year is bad. So was last year. Tourism helps a little.

The bus ride from Manizales to Cali was 5 hours of small coffee farms sloppily patched over hill chains. Garden of Eden as far as the eye can see. Like a cup of coffee, for the landscapes of coffee country to be enjoyed properly, use as many senses as possible. Drinking the air. I had my head out the window most of the time, recklessly exposed to the rapid climate shift during the journey, which resulted in a bad cough I still have a week later. Worth it.

Chinchina and Manizales, Colombia
Guayabal Finca, Plantation Tour

from seed to cup...

legitimate proof of coffee wisdom


Popayan, Colombia

Fractal Art Gallery

Still going small...