So . . . these past few weeks I've found myself pretty exhausted.  It feels like I need a break or something to get out of a rut.  I haven't been out of town in a few weeks and I think that is what is bringing me down a bit.  The solution is easy.  This coming weekend I'd like to head to Cuenca to enjoy the cool weather and just to "get away".  I find myself thinking constantly of the summer plans of travel.  It's almost like an obsession.  Here are the plans:

I'll head to La Paz, Bolivia on June 12th.  I'll be traveling solo, so I'll get to do what I want and when I want (mmm . . . that sounds a bit selfish).  Anyway, I'll travel to southern Bolivia by bus and train.  Tupiza is a town where I'll spend some time hiking and exploring.  It is badlands country.  Extremely beautiful, from what I've seen in pictures.  I'll also head to Salar de Uyuni (the salt flats of Bolivia).  After that, I'll head back to La Paz and explore a bit.  Then it is off to Lake Titicaca.  I'll hike and explore the lake on the Bolivian and Peruvian side.  In Peru, I'll go to Arequipa.  There are tons of hiking opportunities there.  Really close, there are two canyons.  One is the deepest canyon in the world, and both are twice as deep as the Grand Canyon.  After exploring a bit, it's off to Nazca where the Nazca lines are and then on to Lima.  My friends will be meeting me in Lima.  We'll head to Cusco and hike the Inca Trail to get to Machu Picchu.  Can't wait for the trip to begin!!!

This past weekend, I went to the Rubén Blades concert with friends.  It was a great time!  Even though I only knew a three or four of the songs, it was easy to realize their talent.  All the musicians were amazing!  A good word to describe the venue is HOT!  It was like watching an amazing concert in a sauna.  It was definitely worth all the sweat.  Here are some pictures and a few videos I took.

Here are a few videos I took:

I'm quickly realizing that my aspirations of creating weekly, or even bi-weekly, posts is slipping through the cracks.  I think there are lots of reasons why it seems to be harder to keep up on the blog.  At the beginning, everything was so exciting, new, and different.  Now that I have been here for a while, things that would have shocked and amazed me five months ago have sort of fallen short of astounding me.  It is a good sign, I think, that I have adjusted and have started to think of Ecuador as a home rather than a strange and beautiful place that I have been visiting.  Regardless, I'm going to make a conscious effort to improve the frequency of my posts, even if they are shorter posts with less pictures.  Having said that, this past weekend I returned to Mindo.  I wanted to go back to take a guide out bird watching.  The bus ride up to Mindo took 12 hours (it should've taken 8 at the most).  The next morning I was up at 5 and ready to see some birds.  I saw some pretty amazing species.  Some of the highlights were:  andean cock of the rock, different species of toucans, toucanets, woodpeckers and tanagers.  Unfortunately, my camera was too big to take pictures through the guide's spotting scope.  However, I have pictures that the guide took of the same species of birds on different outings of his.  Here are a few pics: