Bienvenidos a Ecuador

Two weeks ago I sat down to find a ticket somewhere-I was thinking South America, maybe Peru. Ecuador was the cheapest and so here I am. Two nights ago I arrived in the city of Quito just south of the equator.

Nestled in the Andes mountains at 9300 ft. even the equator gets a bit chilly at this elevation so I'm not quite laughing yet at all the Norte Americanos that I left behind in the cold, but I'll soon be on the beaches of Canoa for a white sand Christmas and paddling into the waves of reputedly epic length-if I don't get lost in the Amazon rainforest first.

I spent the last two days exploring the sites of the city, highlighted by the majestic Basilica of Old Town, a behemoth vestige of Spanish colonialism. If you had told me yesterday morning that I was going to spend two hours in church I would have laughed, but you don't have to be Catholic to have a religious experience atop the towering spires, and the precarious climb to get there is prayer inspiring.

So begins the latest adventure and, I might add, the least planned yet so stay tuned for the misadventures to come...