For those of you following along at home

As I jump around talking about books, sparkling wine and cuy (roasted guinea pig), I thought I'd best give some indication of where we actually were on this trip.

Aside from the unintentional night in Guayaquil (largest city in Ecuador, on the coast), we did not venture far from Quito (capital city in a high Andean valley).
Our trip was basically:

1. Mindo (West of Quito towards Santa Domingo de los Colorados), cloud forest eco-tourism village at 1250m
2. Papallacta (East of Quito towards Baeza-- in the Amazon watershed), hot springs in an old volcano crater, surrounded by high Andeas and some cloud forest at 3,300+ m.
3. Tena, bustling city in the Amazon jungle at 518m (quite a bus ride from over 10,000 ft. to under 2,000).
4. Banos (between Puyo and Ambato) tourist town on the "balcony" of a volcano at 1,800m.
5. Riobamba, bustling city surrounded by volcanoes at 2,750 m and at the bottom of the little map.
6. and back to Quito.

Maps provided by the CIA via wikipedia.