Camera critters and shadow shots, Ecuador

To market, to market,

To buy a fat hog,

Home again, home again, jiggity-jog!

No, we didn't really intend to buy livestock at the Ecuadorian country markets after our trip to the Galapagos Islands some years ago, but if we had wanted any, it would have been easy to find. However, we went back to our Quito hotel (above) without buying a pig in a poke.

This little pig went to market...

© Photos by Kay Davies and Richard Schear    

And this little pig went to roam!



Posted for
Misty Dawn's
Camera
Critters
Thanks, Misty!


and
for
Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Mellow Yellow Monday: taxi in Quito, Ecuador

© Photo by Richard Schear, November, 2006

We laughed when we woke up our first morning in our Quito hotel, which was in the former British embassy, and looked out the front window of our room to see a familiar picture of The Kentucky Colonel.

There were many mellow yellows around The Colonel and his bucket-hatted young admirer, but this taxi was a far-from-mellow yellow, undoubtedly for increased visibility.

The sky, at 9000 feet (2750 meters) above sea level, rivaled the buses for blueness. After I got used to the altitude, we enjoyed staying in Quito and seeing something of the country of Ecuador before, and after, a yacht cruise in the Galapagos Islands five years ago.

Posted for
Mellow Yellow Monday
hosted each week by Drowsey Monkey. Thanks, Drowsey!

Thursday Theme Song: you're the...

With apologies to the wonderful, late, great Nat King Cole, I've messed with the lyrics a bit here, rather nonsensically, just to go with a photo my husband took some years ago when we were in Quito, Ecuador, on our way to the Galapagos Islands.

Wikipedia photo

Our hotel in Quito was the former British Embassy, and I chose it for that reason, as well as its proximity to streets where we could shop. The closest restaurant turned out to be at the end of the block, so we visited it on several different evenings.
The first time, however, I ordered cafe con crema in my best Baja Mexican Spanish, we were extremely surprised. The coffee came with cream alright, but it was a bowl of delicious, thick cream, so beautiful I was tempted to eat it with the spoon.
*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x8VXukEqe8

© Photo by Richard Schear

You’re the cream in my coffee, 

You’re the salt in my stew; 

You will always be my obsessity:

I’ve lost me about you. 

*

You’re the lace on my collar, 

You're the soul to my blues; 

You will always be my obsessity:

I’d be lost without youse. 

*

Posted for Hootin' Anni's musical meme

Thursday Theme Song

Thanks, Anni!

Book Blurb Friday: elevation, 9000 feet

One of the most beautiful cities in the world, Quito, Ecuador, sits on the equator, but the weather is never too hot. The reason is its altitude: 9000 feet (2743 meters) above sea level.

Much of Quito's architecture is Spanish Colonial, but much of it is modern as well. It is a vibrant, thriving city, without being too big for comfort.

The symbol of Quito is the iconic statue of the Virgin Mary on top of a hill overlooking the city.

Author Kay Davies and her photographer husband Richard Schear visited Quito with an eye to retiring in the city or its environs.

In this beautifully written and superbly illustrated volume, Quito: ¿Si o No? learn what the author and her husband decided, and why.

Posted for

Book Blurb Friday

hosted by Lisa Ricard Claro at Writing in the Buff

Each week, Lisa posts a photo (see top photo, by Lynn Obermoeller) to inspire other writer-bloggers to imagine a book, of which the prompt photo is the front cover, and to write a "blurb" (maximum 150 words) for the back cover to entice people to buy this book.

This week's submission is 129 words.

(Additional photos by Kay Davies and Richard Schear.)

To see how the prompt photo inspired other writer-bloggers, please click

HERE!

Q is for Quito, part of the start of it all

Photos by Richard Schear and Kay Davies, Quito, Ecuador 2006   

Lunch at The Coffee Tree in Quito.

The main building (not shown here) of Hotel La Cartuja used to be the British Embassy in Quito.
We stayed there before and after our cruise in the Galapagos.

I discovered I really did need my scruffy old shoes shined,
and these two young men did a great job, directed by our guide (in yellow).

I started writing An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel  in 2009, as you can see by clicking HERE and scrolling down to read my earliest chapters.
Our trip via Quito, Ecuador, to the Galapagos Islands, was the first big adventure on which Dick and I embarked, except for 1-week trips he was awarded by the company for which he works. He was quite content to wait and see if he'd win another company trip each year, whereas I was convinced every 60ish person in the country had a secret desire to visit a place in a far-distant part of the planet. I was right, but I didn't ask my husband the right question until 2006. Then we were off!
I learned a lot from the trip to Quito and the Galapagos. I believe Dick did, too. We have, as I said in the early chapters, been traveling ever since and, while it is never exactly easy for this unfittie, we're still learning.

Posted for  ABC Wednesday, hosted by Mrs. Nesbitt's capable team.

To see how other photographer/bloggers were inspired by the letter Q, please click

HERE!