Real Travel Adventures
International
4 NEW Articles
by Terry Zinn
by Mary Anne Lonze
by Jim Loomis
by Ron Kapon
Adventure Travels
Stories & Photos
Enjoy our past features below:
INTERNATIONAL
MAGAZINE
Adventure Travel can often
take you all over the world,
but securing accommodation
wherever you travel can be
difficult, and costly. That's why
many adventurers who find
themselves traveling frequently
have decided to purchase a
timeshare resale.
The flexibility that these vacation
properties afford allows owners to
travel to thousands of locations on
a budget; and you can find
timeshares for sale all over the world.
International
Travel Adventures
Stories & Photos
We average nearly a half million unique visitors a year.
On Home Page
In Travel News
Your FREE online travel magazine e-zine of exciting travel adventures, travel reviews, travel photos from all ages and lifestyles of real travel in US and the world. International travel adventure - travel adventure magazine - travel reviews - trip planner - road trip planner - travel news - Real Travel Adventures Ezine with Book Review and Travel Guides for good reads and good listens on your trips and international travel adventures.
Sharing Travel Adventures & Adventure Travel
Discover Great get-aways, budget stays, and luxury travel to Dream About .Choose from Hundreds of Travel Reviews and and book reviews Outdoor and Nature Photos
Get Your Travel Review Published here!
INTERNATIONAL
MAGAZINE
Andes Road Trip, from Quito to the Coast
©2009 Mary Anne Lonze
Hold onto your Panama Hat … this is one exhilarating ride!
At 10,000 feet, the air is perceptively thinner in the Ecuadorean capital of Quito. Travelers puff and gasp the first few days of their visit. Stone steps and sidewalks seem steeper; footsteps tread more slowly. This ancient, beautiful city is home to over 2 million residents. It fills the valley at the foot of 15,710 foot high Rucu Pichincha with thousands of single-story simple homes, creeping halfway up its green slopes. In the city center is the international airport, laid out on a dried-up lakebed. Still, my lungs longed for the warm sea-level coast, with its cool Pacific breezes.
While most travelers hop the 40-minute commuter jet from Quito to the coastal city of Manta, We chose the 7-hour overland route through the Andes mountains, in a taxi.
It was the rainy season in Quito. This city's temperatures vary only a dozen or so degrees year round, maintaining a feeling of perpetual springtime. The journey began with navigating the drizzly, twisting streets filled with Sunday morning churchgoers.
As the crowded city dissolved into open road, mountains peeked through the open edge of the steep man-made ravine. Distant mountains, grayed out with aerial perspective, wore a froth of pale, translucent clouds. We continued to climb. The higher we traveled, the more a misty fog condensed into rain clouds crawling through the foliage. We began to see waterfalls cascading the sheer rock face of the mountains. Mile after mile of uninhabited cloud forest unfolded.
What lay ahead was the spectacular panorama of trees and vegetation clutching the sides of sheer, vertical cliffs. The road became a single lane in both directions, occasionally widening to allow for passing of slower traffic. As the road ascended the peaks, the air became ever thinner, wetter, colder.
Everywhere "Ahora" signs warned of landslides. Rocks of all sizes were strewn across the road. Roads narrowed and entire lanes suddenly disappeared as the edges crumbled over the precipice. Few guardrails are seen. A yellow line marked 2-way traffic lanes, but it did little to deter drivers from passing in "No Passing Zones," around blind curves, where the misty visibility shrouded traffic in either direction. Cars passed buses, passed trucks, passed cars in a kind of vertical challenge hopscotch. Switchback turns concealed any vehicles except those visible only a few yards ahead.
Every so often, I glanced at the speedometer. The driver was doing between 80 and 100 kilometres per hour. Yet, other cars, intra-city buses, and trucks sped by our little car.
All along the route, groups of men in hard hats and day-glo vests were building the road one shovel-full at a time. Others manned the bright orange dump trucks, and backhoes that were clawing a new road out of the massive granite mountainsides.
Here and there, the road surface had eroded to a consistency of corrugated cobblestone. The driver arm-wrestled the steering wheel as we slalomed our way across the bumps and potholes. There were few road markings, or signs. Guardrails, where they occurred, abruptly ended leaving unprotected sheer fall-offs and rock slides. Every few miles, a solitary homemade cross marked a spot where fellow travelers never completed their intended journey.
After a few hours of digging my nails into the taxi's armrest, we reached the summit of the ridge, and began our decent. With each turn, as the Sierra Andes receded into the rearview mirror, the air became warmer, denser. We found it easier to breathe. Soon we were seeing small hamlets. Banana trees and palms replaced the deciduous trees of the higher altitude landscape. As we passed through the farmland, we saw cacao beans spread on the side of the road, drying in the sun. The carcass of a freshly slaughtered pig hung from a pole that was propping up the front corner of the tin roof of a wooden mountain shack.
A tropical landscape began to emerge. Solitary, doorless, thatched-roof huts, perched on stilts, appeared. Each having open-air eaves and a single window covered by a shutter, they began to dot the countryside. A Vietnamese mountain family would have felt perfectly at home in such a hut.
On and on we drove through the countryside, finding strange and wonderful sights. Rounding a sharp hairpin turn, we found a carving of the menacing face of El Diablo chiseled into a 20-foot high slab of rock face. The brave, anonymous sculptor had worked miles from any town.
Slowing to enter another small town, we found our path blocked by a gathering of townspeople attending the open-air funeral of some prominent local. They spilled out into the street, entirely filling the traffic lane, forcing us to drive into oncoming traffic to continue our journey. Hours later, we watched a truckbed full of joyful young men celebrating their soccer victory. They hoisted a small trophy, chanting their victory song. A large joy in a small town.
Near dusk, as we watched clusters of riders on burros and horseback gathering at a local hacienda to spend a Sunday evening together. We approached Montecristi, the town where the real Panama Hats and other crafts are fashioned. There, street vendors approached the car to sell fruit (the ubiquitous banana) and cookies.
At long last, we arrived in Manta and caught a glimpse of a cruise ship pulling out from its berth as it began to continue the journey southward down the coast. It was just after 6:30 pm. The sun had set over the Pacific horizon and it was nightfall.
A most exhilarating road trip. Sights, sounds and smells never to be experienced from an airplane's altitude of 30,000 feet.
____________________________________________________________________
Book Your Travel To Almost Any Adventure Here
Great Help and Great Prices Book Now!
_____________________________________________________________________
Have you ever been kept awake in a plane or car with the squishy rustle of your jogging suit? Or have you found exercize suits too restrictive to be comfortable on a long trip? Magellans Ultra Travel Suit is the perfect answer! Lightweight microfiber two piece suit is lined and has zippers at the ankle for ease over boots or walking shoes. It is silent when you move and feels silky smooth and soft to touch. Perfect for the plane or car and also perfect for a day of sight-seeing. It looks smart and stylish, so you can pack light and just carry on a couple of these and you are set for any journey. Machine washable and dryable, or it drips dry quickly.Order from www.Magellans.com
____________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
 |
 |
 |
|
||
 |
|
 |
|
||
 |
Book & Audio Reviews For Your Travels
Subscribers:So that your free subscription is not mistaken for spam,
Please copy & paste our E-mail address into your address book: mail@realtraveladventures.com
It's that simple!
Real Travel Adventures International Magazine
Adventure Travels in your Free Ezine
If any links don't work
Thanks for visiting us!
Real Travel Adventures International Magazine
Real and Armchair Travelers: Enjoy best trip reviews, travel features, and excellent travel photos in RealTravelAdventures.com, your FREE on-line international magazine. Send your funny or outrageous travel experiences & photos and get published!
Visit or dream of fascintating places with Real Travel Adventures e-zine! This site offers travel humor, photos, stories, helpful guidebooks, and more. Visit for fun or to seek tips for your next travel adventure...and then share your own stories with us here at
realtraveladventures.com, your free online travel magazine, where you'll find great book reviews, international travel adventures magazine, airline tickets, real travel adventures, camping, RV travel, RV's, Cruises, restaurant reviews, RVing, FamilyTrips, traveling with kids and children, Nature and eco trips, ecology, international travel, Ski Trips, Spas, Spiritual Retreats, interviews with Special People, Travel Humor, Travel News, Unbelievable, WeddingTrips, restaurant reviews and advisor, traveling adventures, adventure travels, travel, virtual and armchair travel, Back Roads, off the beaten path, where to go Camping and enjoy RV trips, where to Dine and Sleep, fun Family Trips, our Favorite Finds, Arts and Crafts, cruises and cruise vacations, romantic trips, traveling tips, travel stories, audio book reviews for your travels, books reviews, good books for a trip, wedding trip planner, wedding Trips, Honeymoons, Unbelievable adventures, Travel News, humorous travel stories, spas and retreats, spiritual retreats, meditation retreats, ski trips, week-end trips Near You, nature's Best places, ecology trips, travel guide books, traveling with children, e-zines, FREE Ezines, Free travel magazines, magazine, free online magazines, internet magazines, free magazine subscriptions, web magazines, true stories, humorous articles, funny features, human interest features, nature photos, environment photographs, photos, adventurous stories, real true stories, true adventrues, camping gear, vacation, holidays, safaris, Caribbean vacations, cheap hotels, great places to go, nature hikes, nature photography, family vacations, family holidays, trip planner, great trips, scenic photos, holiday vacations, holidays, holiday stories, foreign destinations, International travel trips. And you can Get published here too! Send us your travel stories and pictures.
© 2009 Bonita Productions Inc.
If you wish to use our features or photos you must first contact us