I was relaxing after a sumptuous lunch of chicken with walnut sauce at Hosteria Hacienda Pinsaqui.  GM Alex Roman came up to the table. “Your Horse is ready,” he said. With that I walked out to the green lawn near the stables to meet my steed. Maradona is an eight-year […]

Our final night in Ecuador brought us out to the country, it was a welcome relief from the crowded streets and noisy bustle of Cuenca. We took a taxi out to Hosteria Caballo Campana  about 15 minutes from the center of Cuenca and were soon patting some friendly horses and […]

Jose Jimenez makes dyes from walnuts, insects and other natural things to weave in spectacular shawls.     Rosita Loja, miniature maker  

We spent the day in Cuenca, which is a very pretty city, as so many people in Quito told us. There is a trout-filled river that runs through the city, and lots of churches and houses that go back to colonial times. Along the river, green mowed lawns line the […]

Quito is an exciting city and over the past three days I’ve gotten a chance to talk to a lot of locals about what is coming up and what’s exciting here in Ecuador’s largest city.  I also got to get a feel for the place when I took a long […]

Inside Café Cultura, a boutique hotel in Quito three fires crackled in the fireplaces, as we were welcomed warmly by Lazlo Karolyi, a Hungarian immigrant who owns this and five other boutique hotels in Ecuador. He was happy have us, having sent a car to fetch us at our hotel, […]

We spent the day exploring many of the best attractions of Quito, starting by driving up to the El Panecillo, the park at the top of a mountain that overlooks the historic downtown and its many houses on the hillsides. There is a metal statue of a winged Virgin Mary […]