At 7000ft (2100m) Loja, Ecuador is hot by day, cool by night, and dry. It is not on the typical gringo trail and it looks to be nice city to live in. Parks, public transportation, and cool architecture really sell a city to us.
But the highlight is the orchid garden at the Reynaldo Espinoza Botanical Garden. A lot of the flowers are small and not so brilliantly colored. I suspect they are native, not hybrids. And it is completely outside, not in a greenhouse. I had a lot of fun going around spotting flowers, pretending I was on an "orchid safari" as I had recently learned that there are tours to see orchids in situ in the forest.
Various orchids at the Reynaldo Espinoza Botanical Garden.
Eduardo Dega tiles ring this fuente (fountain) in Parque de la Independencia.
A couple of buses pulling up to an enclosed stop which is part of Loja's mass transit system called Situ (Sistema Integrado de Transporte Urbano). The right-hand lane is dedicated to Situ buses.
The stations are at the level of the bus floor, so you can step right on to the bus through the wide, mid-bus doors.
Restored Colonial buildings at the corner of Lourdes and Bolivar.
The outstanding Art Deco Provincial Government Building.
Sun-Ling and John have been traveling the earth since 2008 while blogging, eating vegetarian and vegan, and riding public transportation. We love uphill day hikes, 20th-century architecture, Roman ruins, all bodies of water, local markets, shopping for groceries, aqueducts, miradors, trip planning, blablacar, and more.
Search This Blog
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Most Recent Post
Qatar: Doha
Doha is another bonus visit for us. We picked a long itinerary that gave us 18 hours in Doha, then Qatar Airways canceled the original fligh...
Most Popular Posts of Last 30 Days
-
Last week we hauled our canoe and tent over to Merchants Millpond State Park and enjoyed some very fine camping and paddling. One day we p...
-
First full day in Alishan, we hiked the much hyped Fencihu-Ruili Old Trail, which had been used by villagers to get around for hundred of ye...
-
From Bishkek it is an easy bus ride to Almaty, capital of Kazakhstan until 1997, still the largest city in Kazakhstan, about two million peo...
-
Doha is another bonus visit for us. We picked a long itinerary that gave us 18 hours in Doha, then Qatar Airways canceled the original fligh...
-
The Seoul City Wall was built in the 14-century. In the past 30 years the "fortress wall" has been restored and revitalized with a...
-
We will be flying from Yangon to Vientiane via Bangkok on Feb 3rd, which is the last day for our Burmese visa. We are expecting to get a ...
-
Hehuanshan (Mount Hehuan) at 3400+ m.a.s.l has a full service hotel run by park services and is only three hours of bus ride from Taichung t...
1 comment:
Thu satellite image of Loja is not very sharp, can't get a feel for the town layout. But you're out in the countryside ISO orchids, not in town market.
Post a Comment