Saturday in Ecuador

These images were taken on our way home from Otavalo. They are the last 5 that I intended to load. This is a third-world and obviously the internet is not as successful as it is at home. This is my third attempt to load these images. These are the only ones that would load today. So I give up and present these! All of them were taken out the window of our moving vehicle. Roads in Ecuador have no shoulders--only very deep ditches on either side -- nor do they have pull-outs for stopping to take photographs! They should, as the vistas are incredibly awesome.

The above photo is Vulcan Imbabura. We call it the "brooding volcano." It is one of our favorites in all of Ecuador.
This is a closer-up shot of the lower part of Imbabura above the lake. It absolutely astonishing how the Equatorianos farm the Andes Mountains -- right straight up the side. Beautiful.
Back up in the tops of these mountains are the Lagunas Mojandas (lakes) which are spectacular and which we have visited several times. (Treacherous, terrifying roads)
This is a stretch of highway that is lined by huge old eucalyptus trees -- one of my favorite parts of the road. This is the area where there are many of the rose plantations. Flowers are one of Ecuador's largest exports.
All of those white spots in the background across this deep valley are the greenhouses for the flowers the Ecuadorians grow. They are everywhere. (Remember all these images were taken from our moving SUV and are out-of-camera -- no photoshop work. Also, you can click on the images if you want to see them full-size.) I will try to post more tomorrow. And of course today we went in the totally opposite direction east up over the Andes and down toward the Amazon River Basin into the Oriente. Not at all sure when I will be able to get those uploaded. I may have to wait till I get back to the States!!! Where we have real internet. Sometimes we have no clue how fortunate we are for all the advantages we have living in America.