Adventures of the Albino Bowler

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Hats off in Ecuador

January 21, 2012 Category: Albino Bowler No Comments »

Kimberly and I took the bowler with us on a brief trip to Ecuador. Most of our time was spent in a town called Cuenca. It is the third largest city in Ecuador and rated #1 for the last three years by International Living as a retirement haven. It’s also been premiered on two episodes of House Hunters international. Although a fairly large city of over 500,000 Cuenca feels very small town. It is a Spanish colonial town built in the 16th century. It has great architecture, and since it’s on the equator at just under 9,000 ft above sea level, it also has great weather.

We arrived via plan in Guayaquil, Ecuador and drove to Cuenca the next day. It’s a 3 hour drive to Cuenca which takes you over the Andes Mountain range and thru El Cajas National Park which is breathtaking at over 12,000 ft above sea level. We stayed at a bed and breakfast in down town Cuenca that has been in the same family for over 150 years called Casa de Ordenez.

Our first brief outing took us to the village of Cojitambo including Cojitambo Mountain and Incan Ruins from 500b.c. The view from the top of the village below is great and the ruins were very interesting.

We also took the bowler to a small village nearby Cuenca where the "Panama" hat was first created. Strangely, it’s only called a Panama hat because the first Europeans to get them were told they came from Panama because that’s where they were loaded onto their boats. We watched ladies hand make these hats, bought several and even saw the worlds largest panama hat according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Ecuador is nearly 100% Catholic and there are plenty of beautiful Cathedrals to prove it. However, there are also so weird pictures and statues of Christ. Like the picture we took of Christ holding up a machete and the one of baby Jesus and Mary wearing Panama hats.

We really loved the area and the people, so much so that we plan to go back in the next month.

–Chad Quesenberry

Ecuador

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Tags: Chad Quesenberry, Cuenca, Ecuador, travel

Iceland in October

November 23, 2011 Category: Albino Bowler No Comments »

“Wait, what? You’re going where? …In October?” Yes, yes… we heard that a lot. Yes, we went to Iceland in October. Why you might ask? Well… a couple of reasons really. My wife has been battling breast cancer for the last year and a half and we were finally done with everything in Sept; we needed a celebration trip. We had talked about wanting to see Iceland and the northern lights, so we strung it all together… and found ourselves in Iceland… in October. It turned out to be an excellent time to see the Aurora Borealis; we were lucky enough to catch them twice during our 8 day visit… and what a show they were. This is definitely one of those things everyone should see at least once in their lifetime; I certainly hope to see them again one day. Absolutely amazing (by the way, I made a time-lapse of the northern lights, which you can see here)!

Surely there is more to Iceland than just the northern lights though, right? Definitely! For those not in the know, Iceland has a very interesting and unique landscape… and some pretty interesting history as well (think Saga era Viking stories). The landscape is largely volcanic and still has lots of geothermal activity going on… so there are hot springs (with funky blue colored water) and steam vents strewn all over the place. Additionally, the country is littered with waterfalls. There were more than a few days on our trip that my wife was reminding me that we’d never make it all the way around the island if I kept stopping every 100 yards or so and taking pictures of the various waterfalls! It seemed that around every corner there was a unique rock formation or waterfall waiting to have its picture taken! Phenomenal stuff! Throw on top of that some pretty spectacular glaciers… and this is my kind of place!

Like everyone, Holly and I started our adventure in the capital city of Iceland, Reykjavik. I usually don’t expect just a whole lot out of capital cities, but Reykjavik is small enough to still be quant and has a very European feel to the architecture. We stayed our first and last nights there in a little apartment that is rented out to short-term visitors. From there we really weren’t sure what we were going to be able to see. We had rented an AWD vehicle, but not really being familiar with the weather, we just didn’t know what to expect. From Reykjavik, there is a highway that makes a lap around the island and is an excellent way to see all the sights of the country, so on day two we started out to see where we’d make it to… turns out we had time to drive the whole thing!

Our favorite part of the island was definitely the south part of the country. The most impressive waterfalls (in my opinion) were there, like the one pictured to the right called Skógafoss. The picture doesn’t really do it justice because what you can’t really see is the fact that we were several hundred yards away from this 200ft tall monster! Really really cool. There were also these really neat black pebble beaches there, the glaciers and glacier lagoons were there… lots and lots of neat stuff. We kind of got dealt a bad hand with regards to the weather (it is, after all, the slow season for a reason LOL) and so a lot of the north part of the island was seen through the car windows… peering through the fog, snow, and rain! But hey… gives us an excuse to go back, right? All in all, we had a great time and I’d highly recommend it!

–Dan Thompson