There is no Q in Ecuador

Emily and Cayo had to work the week before Christmas, so Ray, Andy and I took a bus trip out to the west of Quito to Arasha Rain Forest Resort for three days.

We have taken buses in Ecuador many times and the experience varies quite considerably. Very often the bus is old and beat up with people and bags of corn and live chickens filling every inch of space. The driver's helper hangs out the door yelling, "OTAVALO-OTAVALO-OTAVALO-OTAVALO-OTAVALO!" (or whatever the destination is) as the bus pulls up to each intersection and people get off and on all along the way. At the left is a picture of the inside of one of those kind of buses.

The bus we took to Arasha was, in contrast, clean, quiet and remarkably free of chickens. We watched an American movie (Daddy Daycare--not great) with Spanish subtitles. It was lovely.


When we arrived at Arasha we were quite sure we had discovered Paradise. Pretty thatched-roof cottages dotted the hillsides. Tropical flowers, butterflies, palm trees as far as the eye could see. We soon found the pool and discovered that it encompassed a bar, where you could enjoy a pina colada without ever leaving the water. This was, by far, the fanciest, most upscale place we have ever been to in Ecuador.