Watching hummingbirds was an important adventure on side-trip from Quito during our ☞ 2008 Ecuador trip. We rented a car, with very knowledgeable driver/guide. On the way out to cloud forest, we took the old road starting high on the slopes of Pichincha, birdwatching in Yanacocha ( ca 3500 masl), Bellavista Cloud Forest Reserve (ca 2200 masl) and at Alambi Reserve bird sanctuary along the new road on the way back to Quito (ca 1600 masl). Different hummingbird species live at different altitudes. They live in the forest, but some come to feeders to get extra food. Our guide and the sanctuary guide were able to identify many species.
During  ☞ 2008 Ecuador trip our eyes were trained on Galapagos, the big volcanoes (Cotopaxi, Quilotoa, Pichincha) and the jungle (Cuyabeno), but no flower was left unnoticed. We really enjoyed lazy and relaxing visit to Quito Botanic Garden with superb orchid collection. Here is what we saw.
With all our travel plans on hold we have plenty of time to cook at home – going back to our culinary roots and also looking for international inspiration from our travels. Our last trip was to Australia, thanks to Binny’s we have good supply of their wines, we bought the clay tagine at a souk in Marrakesh,  Piotr enjoyed Bosnian coffee  during trip to Travnik (the coffee set and wall rag is Piotr’s family history). We use some spices from Morocco (white peppercorns, mint) and Nepal (turmeric, hot red pepper, Himalayan peppercorns). Himalayan black salt is just a mineral exhibit for now. We always have a jar of Moroccan marinated lemons (homemade). Borowiki (frozen) imported from Poland can be found at Lassak Delicatessen in Palos Hills.
Sour/pickled cucumber soup (zupa ogórkowa)
Pork tenderloin and Polish sausage (polędwiczki wieprzowe i biała kiełbasa)
