After three days of adding kilometers to Mozart’s mileage through beautiful Andean landscapes, crossing the border September 29th and finally arriving in Ecuador, we decided to stay some time at one place to relax and arrange some things in our mobile ‘hacienda’. One camping site close to Ibarra had impressive reviews in our frequently used ioverlander app, so we decided to head there and check this place out.
Arriving at this camping site called Finca Sommerwind of owner Hans from Germany, we were welcomed by Julia, Hans’ right hand, a huuuuge amount of different German beers and dishes like Currywurst, Wiener Schnitzel, Bienenstich and many more. Even if eating and tasting local food is a big part of our journey, after months abroad we jumped into this homelike food as if there was no tomorrow. During our stay we were able to watch Ibarra’s yearly horse race, where a bunch of riders chase last year’s winner to steal a fox tale and turn himself into the local hero until next year.
A less amazing experience during that stay was the amount of bush fires. There were plenty during our stay on this camp site and one came as close you could smell and even hear it. We were packed and ready to start at any time, gladly Ibarra’s firefighters got it under control after a couple of hours.
The planned three days turned into 6 days for various reasons. First, mentioned high quality culinary surprises, second the great camping site itself and its amazing and helpful staff. Third and most important, our new friends Sara and Tomislav, our super funny camping neighbors driving in their Russian UAZ Buchanka called Juri the entire Pan-American Highway for about two years in total. Those two became friends you just gotta hope to meet soonest again. When having breakfast together on Tomislav’s birthday, we were taught that Wiener Schnitzel is an amazing breakfast option! In case that our ways won’t cross again in Peru, Bolivia, or any other part of South America, we’ll definitely annoy these guys in Europe at first opportunity.
Fourth and last reason for extending our stay at Finca Sommerwind was to read about, plan and book our stay on the remote Pacific islands of Galapagos, even if this next destination of our journey means to leave Mozart behind again.
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