Two Tickets To Ecuador

Back in 1982 I circumnavigated South America by bus.

Okay, I cheated and flew four times: from Porto Velho to Cuiaba, from Buenos Aires to Tierra del Fuego, from Rio Gallegos to Comodoro, and from Cuzco to Lima. But basically it was six weeks on buses. And after that I had pretty much DONE South America.

But what with retirement (hah!) age creeping up, and what with Costa Rica having been overrun with rich and/or ecological Americans, somebody mentioned Ecuador a couple of months ago, and I remembered: Yes, as opposed to Peru or Colombia, that was a charming and friendly and beautiful place. And once I started checking out the ridiculously low real estate prices...

Anyway, one thing led to another, and although the real estate thing would have to be really impressive to actually become, er, real, now, what with low spring airfares, it's become a vacation destination for us.

Yes, us. Because serendipitously we also came up with a house-sitter. Which means that Maureen can come, too. Which means that on Tuesday, May 1, we're out of here.

Of course, now that I have someone to pal around with, I don't know how motivated I'll be to sit in a darkened internet room writing posts that no one (now that Maureen's here, not there) will read.

Not to mention that this isn't the most exciting adventure I've ever planned. Even though we will be going to the Amazon and to exploding volcanoes and llama infested altiplanos.

And, hey, you never know. After all, there are all those real estate deals out there.