I tried and utterly failed to do a post-facto travelogue for my two-week trip to Beijing in August 2008, but here I am failing to learn any lessons and trying again with my recently completely two-week trip to Ecuador. As with the Beijing trip, I traveled heavy on cameras and have a ton of photos to share, and figured I might as well string them together with some prose that may or may not be interesting to friends or helpful to random Internet surfers looking to plan a trip.

The trip was split into several different phases, as follows:

• Phase 1: The Northern Amazon (Orellana and Sucumbíos provinces): working with the Frente de Defensa de la Amazonía
• Phase 2: The Middle Amazon (Napo province): interlude in Misahualli and Tena
• Phase 3: Among the Kichwa (Pastaza province): guinea pigs for a new ecotourism operation
• Phase 4: Tourists in the Northern Sierra (Pichincha province): lazy days in Quito with stops in Papallacta and Mindo
• Phase 5: The Southern Sierra (Azuay province): exploring Cuenca
• Phase 6: Cajas National Park (Azuay province): backpacking at 14,000 feet
• Phase 7: Back to Quito (Pichincha province): half-days in Cuenca and Quito before heading back to the States

I’ll try to write up each of these in turn to accompany my photos (above: one of the last photos I took on the trip - the road out of Cajas National Park). Stay tuned.