For the final portion of our trip, we returned back to Quito and decided to visit the botanical garden next to our first hotel, the Wyndham. It was bonsai galore, I found it amazing how they could basically have a huge plant emerge from such a small piece of pottery. To wrap things us, for […]

  Over the next few days, we spent our days in the beautiful Galapagos islands. We caught a flight from Quito, to Guayaquil, and then landed in the Galapagos where we were greeted by our tour guide. When then walked on to a bus and where later picked up by Pongas (boats) to land aboard […]

(Market pic left to right: Gabrielle Muntean, Emily McCue) By morning, we were back on the road and also back on the grid, for we were heading to Otavalo, or the market capital of Ecuador I guess you could say. If there was any time to collect souvenirs, it was at this moment right here. When […]

At this point, we had woken up before the sun has even risen and it was for a good reason too. We were going on a canoe ride to try and see what interesting animals we could see this time. Since we started our journey, everyone was anxious to see some charismatic mammals. On this […]

(Hammock pic from left to right: Eric Ostrander, Brandon Pollard, Collin McManus) After being surrounded by the city atmosphere for sometime, it was time for us to go off the grid, or on the side of a volcano for that matter. Having left our luxurious Wyndham hotel, our next destination was Yanayacu, a research station […]

(Horse pic left to right: Brandon Pollard, Emily McCue) Upon arrival, me and a fellow recipient, Emily McCue, arrived prior to everyone else in the program, so we had a some down time to explore Ecuador a bit. After arriving to the hotel, we looked across the street and realised something fascinating taking place at […]