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Ecuador 2020

I started the trip by meeting up with some friends in Utah for a ski trip. From Utah, I flew down to Quito and continued my acclimatization, then tried to climb three of Ecuador's tallest mountains. I then returned to Quito, met up with Mindy, and we got to see the equator, Mindo, and Otavalo. We then spent a week in the Galapagos before returning to the mainland and visiting Guayaquil, Cuenca, and Quilotoa.

This album contains the highlights of our trip. If you're interested in seeing more pictures, I created dedicated albums for each section of the trip:

Brighton has a bunch of easy trails that go through the trees. Tons of fun. We also spent a day at Sundance. Skiing at Sundance The first thing I did in Quito was mountain bike down Cotopaxi. Highly recommended! The weather was fantastic. This is the best view of Cotopaxi I'd have all trip. The next day I tried to climb Rucu Pichincha. I got pretty close to the summit, but couldn't find a safe path, so I had to turn back. This mountain was a lot of fun! It's not as dangerous as it looks. Made the summit on the second try! Quito's historic city center The first mountain I tried to climb was Illiniza Norte We spent the night in a cabin about half way up We summited the following day. My first 5,000 meter mountain! We had fantastic weather and views on the way down. The following day we tried to summit Cotopaxi, the same mountain I had biked down earlier. The safest time to climb a glaciated peak like Cotopaxi is in the middle of the night. The weather was awful, but we made it to the summit! Even after descending, my helmet was still covered in a thick layer of ice. Fortunately the hostel I was staying at had a clothesline so I could dry all my stuff out. The next mountain was Chimborazo. Unfortunately, I failed to summit this one. I returned to Quito and met Mindy. Here we are at the equator. We went to a town in the cloud forest called Mindo and went ziplining. I hear Mindo is a world class birding destination. We saw several tropical birds from our hotel. The first place we went to in the Galapagos was Las Grietas. Here we are at El Chato Tortoise Reserve in the highlands. It turns out giant tortoises like hanging out in mud. At night, a bunch of little restaurants take over this street. The food is great! These ugly brujo fish are delicious. I ate two! We took a day trip to Pinzon to do some snorkeling. I hiked out to Tortuga Bay. It's crazy to see beaches like this with no people. We took a boat and went to San Cristobal. San Cristobal has even more sea lions than Santa Cruz! Mindy snorkeling with a sea turtle at La Loberia. We took a day trip to snorkel Kicker Rock. After Kicker Rock, we went to a beach and did some more snorkeling. I spent about ten minutes swimming with this sea turtle. No trip to the Galapagos would be complete without seeing a blue footed booby. I've never seen a bird with a beak like this before. We flew from the Galapagos into Guayaquil and spent a night there. From Guayaquil we took a trip to Cuenca. Cuenca was the most relaxed city we visited on the mainland. We liked it a lot. Deep fried pig (hornado) is a specialty here. Cuenca has an orchestra that does weekly concerts, free of charge. We then did a day trip of Quilotoa. We started by visiting the Pujili Sunday market. Visiting an indigenous family on the way to Quilotoa. Quilotoa
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