After exploring for almost 90 days Colombia it was time for us to move on. The retro perspective about Colombia will follow a little later for those who wish to read about our experiences and findings there.
Now we started to explore Ecuador. Which is about 4 to 5 times the size of Switzerland (47000 sq km). What we have seen so far seems very promising after the first 14 days. As you may know we started our exploration for PermaTree the 1st August 2014 in Paraguay then Bolivia and then Colombia. But we are not yet in the regions of Ecuador we want to explore more deeply. Next box stop is the city of Guayaquil located in the south near to Peru bordering the coast of the great Pacific Ocean.
So far the tropical winter climate was really good for us. Not too cold 😉 it seems that anything grows here also we have seen all tropical fruits from Colombia in Ecuador too so the diversity is absolutely given. Bamboo seems to be the main construction material for humble people this is another interesting detail. Of course the bamboo grows absolutely everywhere and very fast so it’s a sustainable construction material which can be used for furniture, bridges, food and many other uses we have seen so far.
In Ecuador our beloved Chicha drink is also something people still do consume even there is commercial beer available everywhere but the natural Chicha is the preferred alternative for us. We have been eating every day other typical Ecuadorian food and it reminded us a lot about the so rich and tasty Asian dishes. Lots of rice, fish, vegetables, eggs, corn, cacao, banana, platano, citrus fruits, meat and lots of peanut called “mani” here.
The west region of Ecuador was colonized earlier because it was more accessible than the east region bordering to the great Amazon basin. Where we will be heading after Guayaquil. 🙂