We are in Baños, Ecuador, and it is really nice. A small town with hot springs, it is primarily a vacation spot for Ecuadorians, with some British, North Amrican, and German backpackers thrown in. There are a lot of nice restaurants here, where it is hard to find a dinner entree for more than $3.50 USD, some of them even show a movie at 8 pm. Baños is surrounded by massive, green mountains, with hiking trails starting right at the edge of town. Yesterday, we hiked halfway up the biggest mountain, Tungurahua Volcano, which is currently active, provides heat to the hot springs and caused an evacuation of Baños

six years ago. Outdoor tourism is very big here. There are various trips available including bungee jumping, whitewater rafting, and mountain biking to name a few.

Prince Charles goes bird watching with Rick

OK, that is actually Dick De Boers, a Dutchman who looks strikingly like Prince Charles. He was a great sport and even provided the royal wave for a pose with Rick. Dick and his wife Marion were great fun to be with, and they confirm our assertion in earlier travel logs that no matter where we go, the most wonderful people we meet turn out to be Dutch.


We were at a cloud-forest reserve named Bellavista, which has a huge variety of tropical birds, including Andean tucans and 100's of species of hummingbirds. In addition to unusual birds, we also brushed up against the somewhat bizarre culture of competitive bird watching. While most bird watchers are, like us, simply appreciators of nature, there is a segment of hard-core "birders" or "twitchers" for whom the all-important part of bird watching is merely glancing at a a bird so that the name of the bird can be recorded in the watcher's "Book of Life."


Competitive bird watching includes star guides, who are rated on the Internet for their ability to spot rare birds for their clients. According to an ornithologist with whom we had lunch, this all creates a high-stakes money environment, in which star guides will actually damage the environment around them in order to score the right bird.

On the right is Gary with a ´Tutu flower ´ in the cloud forest.