We are going to be in Ottawa for all of September and the first part of October, and our flight back to Austin, Texas to pick up our motorhome isn't until November 5th.
So every few days I would check Google Flight Search to see what deals could be had for those dates leaving from Ottawa.
Yesterday, I booked us two tickets to Quito, Ecuador. Return from Ottawa, Canada for $535 CAD ($410 USD).
Not a huge screaming deal, but not bad either. Besides, we always wanted to go to Ecuador, and with the flights leaving from Ottawa (as opposed to Montreal, or Toronto), it was a good deal.
But, it may not be all play. One of the reasons we were searching for an inexpensive Spanish speaking country is that we want to take a two week intensive Spanish language course. Our Spanish is not bad, but we want it to be better. And it takes effort.
We will see... haven't done any research into this yet.
And of course the other thing about Ecuador that piques our interest is the Galapagos Islands. Yes, they are expensive and would pretty much zero out the benefit of Ecuador being a cheap country. Again, we will see.
In the meantime, we continue with our Australia adventure!
We woke up to yet another blue sky sunny day. Yes, we had quite a few days of rain at the beginning of the trip, but we are making up for that now! We stayed at our "one night free" campsite sponsored by Waterwheel Beach Tavern for the morning and had showers and did a load of laundry and just took our time. Pub owner "Kev" came by and gave us some tips of places to see on our route.
.A short detour was the Stoney Creek Trestle Railway Bridge.
The last train to cross the bridge was in 1988.
Joyce and Bundy and the view of the old bridge, built in 1886.
You can't walk across it anymore...
It's kind of starting to fall apart!
The A1 highway is the main road in this area that sort of follows the coast up to Sydney. But we are trying to stay off of it as much as possible and take the back roads. If we run our of time and have to make a B line up there in August, then that's what we'll do. But in the meantime, we stick to the back roads when we can. Still, there are sections where there is no logical choice but the main highway.
On the A1 highway.
This is the same unused railway line.
Scenery along the way.
We're very close to the coast, and so there are a lot of "no overnight camping" signs around. So, you have to think outside the box a little bit. Still... there are lots of free options.
One section of river had free camping but it was right beside the road. Not our style, even though none of the sites were occupied. We continued on through the town of Marlo and onto the secondary coastal road. We would pull off on a side track every now and again to see if there was a good site.
One of our side excursions!
I do love the fact that we have four wheel drive available. It makes me a lot more confident about taking some of these side tracks and being able to explore!
A view of the ocean.
We took an "unsealed" road (as they call a gravel road here) to the entrance of the Orbost airport where we found a large flat grassy field just before the entrance to the airport. Nobody else around, even inside the airfield gate.
Yep, this will do.
Quiet as can be. Haven't seen a single vehicle since we arrived here. Apparently this airport is mostly used during the summer for fire fighting efforts.
We did see this fellow off in the distance though!
Tomorrow, we've got some coastal walks planned.
Wednesday's drive, 81 kms (50 miles)
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And in Canada...
We took immersion Spanish in Costa Rica, we had varying luck. Myrl studied while Gary did not. We also should have done it individually, not as a couple and we continued to speak English to each other out of the classroom. Gary would not say a word unless it was perfect, Myrl bashed ahead, butchered the language and managed to communicate. Locals were constantly giving Myrl language lessons on proper pronunciation or alternate and better words. We tried immersion Spanish classes in Guatemala but struggled to find one at our level. Most were set up for total beginning Spanish, few for intermediate and polishing up the rough edges. Good luck finding the best school
ReplyDeleteWell I hope that we will be able to find one at our level in Ecuador. We do quite well with what we already know but we need that extra boost to help with our conjugating of verbs and proper sentence structure.
DeleteIf there is a way to travel through Ecuador frugally, you will find it!
ReplyDeleteI don't think we will have any issues travelling through Ecuador frugally because it is a pretty cheap country, it is really only the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador that is pricey!
DeleteTaking a Spanish course sounds so awesome! Wish I could join you, haha. Sounds great! I’d do that in Mexico if we had the time, but not sure we will, too much adventuring to do, yay!
ReplyDeleteWe think it is too, we just need a bit of a boost with our Spanish to get us to the next level.
DeleteNo, I don't think there will be time for a Spanish course while we are there traveling but if you start using Duolingo now, it will help and we will try to do some of the basics during our "Happy Hours". :-)
And the trip to Ecuador sounds fantastic! Love. :)
ReplyDeleteIt should be fantastic, definitely one of the countries that we have wanted to visit for a while now. :-)
DeleteThat sounds like a fun adventure! Can't wait to read all about it this fall!
ReplyDeleteYes, it should be another interesting time! We can't wait but in the meantime we will still enjoy our remaining time here and again back with our family and friends. :-)
DeleteOur son and DIL spent last winter in Ecuador and LOVED it. They are vegans so loved all the wonderful fresh fruit and veggies. There is another couple who live in Cuenca, Equador. J.P. and Amelia. Great videos. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG0F-g9cDLMcP6bd3eVowNQ
ReplyDeleteGood to hear, I am sure that we will love it too! We will have a look at their youtube channel, thank you. :-)
DeleteWe loved Ecuador, such a great and diverse country, and small enough, to explore. If you feel like it, get enough spare time and enough wifi to check, look at our Ecuador label in my blog. I'd go back there in a second, except we have other, unexplored places to go!
ReplyDeleteYep, we are sure we are going to love it too! I will do that, thank you. :-)
DeleteWe have a few countries that we have been to and would go back to in a flash, one of them being Iceland.