Quito, Ecuador — at 2,800 meters (9,200 feet) in elevation, it’s just a bit closer to the sky than most capital cities. Walk around Quito’s old town and you’ll feel it — not only because of the slight shortness of breath you might experience, but also because of the inimitable cloud-popping blue sky overhead. It’s so surreal that you sometimes feel you can reach up and touch it — if only you could stretch just a little bit more.
Throw in a few parks, dramatic staircases, and a few of Quito’s impressive colonial churches like San Francisco Church below, and you’ve got yourself a visual that you just might never forget.
And no, that sky is not photoshopped. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Ecuador, Panorama by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
16 Comments | 17 August 2011
You know the saying, “The early bird gets the worm”? At the weekly indigenous market in Saquisili, Ecuador it appears instead “The early arrival gets the best sheep.” Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Panorama by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
9 Comments | 24 January 2011
Sea lions doing yoga? That’s what it looks like.
Open the panorama below to full screen and take a look around to find the sea lions stretching up to the sun and you’ll see what we mean. A white sand beach next to crystal clear water: not a bad place to practice that yoga, either.
Panorama: Sea Lions on Santa Fe Island in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
For best panorama viewing results, press fullscreen (four arrows) and navigate around with your mouse.
Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Panorama by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
6 Comments | 3 September 2010
When we browse photos from a faraway place to which we’ve never been, we find that the entire visual panorama — the faces, the clothing, the landscape — looks so similar that it blurs any lines of distinction.
When you get up close, though, all the subtle differences have a way of evincing themselves more clearly. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Photography, South America by: Daniel Noll
6 Comments | 3 March 2010
All the best stories are but one story in reality – the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape.
— A. C. Benson
It had never occurred to us to ask, “Where do conspiracy theorists go for early retirement?”
Then we visited Vilcabamba, a little town in southern Ecuador. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Ecuador, South America, Travel by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
28 Comments | 9 February 2010
Sure, we enjoyed our time in the Galapagos Islands. It’s difficult not to when you are surrounded by blue-footed boobies dancing their way to marriage and penguins torpedoing their way through the water.
But when travelers fly in and out of Ecuador only to see the Galapagos, they are missing out.
Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Ecuador, South America, Travel by: Audrey Scott
25 Comments | 27 January 2010
What is it about land borders that attracts hookers, drifters, the down-on-their-luck and crazy travelers like us? The margins, the frontier: the domain of moneychangers, deal-makers, “friendship” bridges, duty free shops — and occasionally, garden gnomes. Passing on foot from one country to the next, the feeling of adventure rises with a heightened sense of possibility, good and bad.
Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Travel by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
23 Comments | 18 November 2009
I’ve been out of the dating game for exactly 12 years, so maybe I’m not the best person to write about how to snag a man. However, during our recent trip to the Galapagos Islands, I observed the behaviors of various birds and something struck me: their mating habits reminded me of those dating advice columns I used to read in Cosmo.
If memory serves, it’s a cruel dating world out there. For those of you still in the game, take comfort that the animal kingdom knows no more forgiveness than our human one.
Were Charles Darwin to lead a voyage into the realm of dating advice, perhaps this is where he’d take us: Continue Reading »
- 8 Days in the Galapagos Islands: A Photo Tour
- Dating Advice from Galapagos Birds (or, When Charles Darwin Meets Cosmo)
Filed Under: Ecuador, Humor, South America, Travel, Videos by: Audrey Scott
21 Comments | 24 August 2009
Filed Under: Ecuador, Photography, South America, Travel by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
15 Comments | 12 August 2009
