Snake juice at Shanta's, Vilcabamba.

On the counter at the bar, owner Shanta keeps a large jar filled with alcohol...and a dead snake.  Shanta, sporting a thick handlebar mustache and cowboy hat, draws shots of snake juice out of the jar.

Always curious, Lorenzo and I tried the snake juice, which tasted like gasoline.  Not willing to subject my taste buds to this terror, I mixed mine with Coke.

Walking the many dogs over the "house-of-mirrors" cement bridge that leads to the Rumi Wilco Nature Reserve.

The bridge's current crooked state is a result of the very bad flood in 1998 mentioned earlier.

I was quite sad to leave Vilcabamba, a place I wanted to stay for another two weeks.

This is an anti-sex trafficking program that Ecuador is implementing, apparently part of a collaboration between the Ecuadorian government, the U.S. government, and the ABA (American Bar Association).  We saw this sign in the Loja airport as we got ready to fly back to Quito to meet Steve, the first bass player in our band.

We met up with Steve and his family in Quito, quite happy to see all of them.

On one of the days, we went to a mall.  Mimes also love going to malls.  Here are some mimes enjoying their lunch in a Quito shopping mall food court.

Tigger greets the kids at Carolina Park in Quito, where we also had Steve's kids ride on horses.  

La Basílica in Quito, as seen from Parque Itchimbía, near the Palacio de Cristal.

The old Santa Clara market building—built in Hamburg, Germany, was brought to Ecuador in pieces and rebuilt in all its glass-and-metal glory on top of a hill east of Old Town.

One of Steve's kids.

Another one of Steve's kids.  Cool, eh?

Enjoying a walk in Parque Itchimbía, with the Palacio de Cristal behind.