We began our trip to Ecuador with a non stop flight to Orlando, FL.  On Friday morning, before boarding our flight south, we walked around a small lake near the Ramada hotel.  We watched at this bird was working on getting his breakfast.

We arrived back at the airport and boarded our flight to Quito, Ecuador.  We arrived at night and saw very little but could tell that this was a very hilly area.  Saturday morning we began with a city tour that took us by several churches, a high end chocolate shop, the Presidential palace and the central square.  The streets were very busy and there were all kinds of street vendors.

 We went into the San Francisco Church

 After our city tour we boarded a bus for a five hour drive to the Amazon Basin and the small town of Tina.  Along the route, we climbed to the highest point in Ecuador, in excess of 12,000 feet.  We were really in the clouds.

We stopped to see several waterfalls along the route.

Arriving in Tina we took a mile long dirt road to our hotel which consisted of several wooden cabins.  Our room was on the second floor with a great balcony and a view of the forest.  We met our guide who would be with us for the next few days.  

Dinner was great and we look forward to our jungle walk tomorrow.