November 9-15: Galapagos Islands Adventure
	October 26, 2014: A Visit with Jeffie in Atlanta
	Return to Index for 2014

For Christmas, 2012, my good friend Greg gave Fred and I a unique gift. The gift was to pay half of the cost of a trip to the Galapagos Islands in November, 2014. Greg knew that this trip was more expensive than we usually took, but he wanted very much for us to accompany him on this "bucket list" trip. We accepted gratefully, and beginning in early 2014 began to make definitive plans for our trip. The three of us agreed that we would also work in a trip to Machu Picchu in Peru, another of our "bucket list" items.

Fred and I could not have been more flattered, and although I told Greg that we would accompany him on our own dime, he still insisted on his financial help. So the three of us began planning a trip that would extend even beyond the Galapagos. Eventually, we worked out a three week odyssey that would see us spending four days in Quito, Ecuador, a week cruising the Galapagos Islands, four days in Cuzco, Peru (including another once-in-a-lifetime trip to Machu Picchu), and, finally, four days in Lima, Peru.

By early this summer, we had finalized our plans. Greg would have a friend of his from Amsterdam, Yoost (pronounced to rhyme with "post") join him. We would fly from Dallas to Quito and spend two days there (one of which was, technically, part of the Galapagos cruise package). Next, we would embark on the actual cruise to those magical islands. Following the cruise, we would travel to Cuzco, Peru, and spend three days there. Using Cuzco as out starting point, we would also take an all-day trip to Machu Picchu and back. We would conclude our South American odyssey with three days in Lima.

Greg was invaluable in the planning, as this was our introduction to renting apartments through AirBnB. Our Quito hotel was part of the cruise package, but Greg arranged for places in Cuzco and Lima. But more about all that later.

QUITO, ECUADOR INDEX Thursday, November 6 Flying to Quito Friday, November 7 The Quito Holiday Inn Avenida Patria Quito Cathedral Mariscal Sucre Saturday, November 8 Plaza San Francisco San Francisco Church The National Theatre The Equator Sunday, November 16 The Marriott Hotel Afternoon Walk

This was such an amazing trip, and resulted in so many pictures, that I will doing something a bit different. I will be treating Quito, the Galapagos, Cuzco, Machu Picchu, and Lima as individual destinations, and will have an index page for most of them. (Since Machu Picchu was only a single day, I'll dispense with an index page.) The index pages will give you entree into the individual days at each destinations. This is the first of those index pages- the page for our stay in Quito.

As you can see in the index page at left, I have an index into each day we spent in (or getting to) the Ecuadorian capital- three before our cruise and one after.

To use the index, you can click on any particular date to go directly to the page for that date. I have listed the major activities for each day in case there is something specific you want to see. But if you would just like to accompany us on all the days of our stay in Quito, as most of you will, just click on the first day in the upper left corner of the index. Once on that first page (or any page) there will be the usual links to get you to the next page or the previous page devoted to our time in Quito. Whenever you are ready to continue through the photo album (which, going forward, will be our cruise in the Galapagos), please use the "RETURN" link that you will find at the top or bottom of each page to come back to the top of this page. There, you will find the links that will take you onward or backward through the photo album.

We hope you enjoy coming along with us to the beautiful, high mountain city of Quito, Ecuador!