From 4500 m to 100 m

I am on my way home, right now sitting in Quito (Ecuador) airport waiting for my flight to Miami, and then on to Newark. Ecuador has been wonderful, but quite rainy. It is the rainy season after all. First six days in the rainforest at about 1300 m altitude - rain started every afternoon at 1 PM. Lots and lots of cool birds, especially hummingbirds, and other animals. In our room we had at some point a frog, a bat, two cockroaches, and large moths. In the forest there were many strange plants, and I will post photos of everything later this week. We also spent one day in Otavalo, in the drier valley between the two Andean mountain chains, and this is a city famous for its market with products from the local weavers and knitters. Sweaters, hammocks, mittens, hats, table cloths, everything. The food market was great too, but the lack of hygiene bothered me a bit. Photos are coming of this too. Finally, yesterday we went to the volcano Cotopaxi, and drove up to 4500 m, the highest I have been. The others in the group climbed another 300 m (took them over an hour because of the high altitude) in rain and snow, but I was satisfied at 4500 m and looked at rocks in the parkinglot instead. Some great birding at a 3800 m lake too! OK, all for now, I have missed you all and soon I will be back blogging with some of my 600 Ecuadorian photos, at 100 m altitude in New Jersey.