2dor | Tudor Vintiloiu

We arrived in Quito around 9 a.m., after a flight change in Amsterdam and two other stops – one in Bonaire, in the Dutch Antilles and another in Guayaquil (port town in Ecuador). Total travel time – 22 hours.

We gained 7 hours travelling West, and although we felt like at the end of a day, here the day was just beginning.

To read the complete story, please click here.

Pentru varianta in limba Romana, dati click aici.

Starting today I will begin to post here the Ecuador travel diary. To make a long story short, we visited to Ecuador this year, for a whole month. We visited cities, jungle and the Pacific coast. Tea wrote down everything in the diary and I completed the story with pictures.

As a novelty, the diary will not be accessible in its entirety on the main page of the blog. Instead I have divised a special section for travel diaries which you can access by clicking on the “Ecuador Diary” button under the header of the home page.

Also, this year, the diary will be available in both Romanian and English.

EDIT: Some sort of error prevents users with Internet Explorer 6.0 browser to comment or view the page properly.

(Click on the map to see it larger)

The jungle part of the Ecuador trip has suffered a few changes due to unforeseen events. Thus we will be travelling from Coca on the Via Auca and then by motorized canoe to the Noneno community where we will camp for a few days. We will then return to Coca and proceed down river towards Peru for about 10-12 hours to the border town of Nuevo Rocafuerte. From there to the Kawimeno community.

We’ll take the same route back to Coca.

These changes also mean a logistic change, as we will be travelling with camping equipment and we will sleep in a tent instead of the more expensive (and comfortable) Jungle Lodges.

Hopefully this way we will experience a more realistic version of life in the Amazon Rainforest, staying clear of the touristy sites. Our new-found guide, by the name of Sandro Ramos, is an experienced guy, licensed by the Ministry of Tourism, who has done this trip many times before. He seems very nice and knowledgeable, but he will sure test my knowledge of Spanish language to the limit.

There are a lot of celebrations during this time in Bucharest to mark the 550th anniversary of the city. I stumbled upon a traditional music concert on one of the streets in the Lipscani area and thought it would be worth a few clicks.

Cateva mii de fani ai lui Michael Jackson s-au adunat aseara pe stadionul ‘Iolanda Balas’ de langa Arcul de Triumf, pentru a-i aduce artistului un ultim omagiu.

Organizatorii au difuzat, pe doua ecrane mari, concertul sustinut de Michael acum 17 ani la Bucuresti in timpul turneului ‘Dangerous’.

Un cuplu priveste spectacolul in timp ce in fundal se vad jocuri de artificii.

Un fan priveste ecranele pe care este difuzat concertul lui Michael Jackson de acum 17 ani din Romania.

Fanii adunati aseara la spectacolul omagial i-au adus un tribut lui Michael Jackson, inclusiv prin tinutele lor.

(Stiu.. este acelasi artificiu pe care l-am mai folosit si in postul anterior. Incerc sa ma las.. dar lucrurile insista sa topaie in fata obiectivului meu.)

Cei mai puternici oameni din lume (?) si-au masurat puterile ieri, la prima editie a World Strong Man Tour in Romania.

Organizare slaba, spatiu mic si ploaie. In rest multe cefe late si multe opinteli.

Mai jos - un spectator priveste competitia din barul hotelului unde a avut loc evenimentul.

Sambata 13 iunie trebuia sa aiba loc la fantana de la Universitate, un fel de joaca cu perne - ei o numeau “mineriada de catifea” - cu ocazia implinirii a 19 ani de la mineriada adevarata.

Au fost 3 oameni cu perne, trei oameni cu aparate de fotografiat, trei jandarmi si un caine. Atat am putut.