Back to Quito & Headed for the Highlands

After Galapagos we returned to Quito for a day to reacclimatize to the altitude and then headed further north about 2 hours to a small community in the Andean Highlands- Zuleta.  Our accommodations were a beautiful adobe hacienda built in 1691 that is now the centerpiece of a 4,000 acre dairy farm complete with a cheese factory, horses,  a Women's Embroidery Cooperative, a Condor rescue centre and more...

Here are the last views of the Galapagos and our day in Quito-

Good-bye cocktail with the Athala II crew
(missing Marteen)

Nash lost a tooth!!

Sunrise over Daphne Island

Daphne Island-
full of Boobys and Frigate birds...

All the Galapagos boats waiting for the OK to send passengers to the shore 

Final Goodbye to Ruly- 

Back in Quito-
"H'ola Antonio!" (in light blue shirt upper left corner)

Quito City panorama

The Teleferico (gondola)

The sun came out to grant us a great view of the city in the valley

What looks like cloud cover is really the smog!

The Andes and all the volcanoes are just beautiful!

This is the highest altitude that any of us have experienced-
Breathing. Hard.

Antonio shared his favorite chocolate cookies with us- YUM!

 Now we head north toward Zuleta...

Vulcan Cayambe (Cayambe Volcano)
Reaching over 18,000 feet, it is snow-capped.

A Rose Farm-
there are over 200 rose farms in this part of Ecuador exporting roses worldwide

Because it is so impressive...
another view of Vulcan Cayambe