Incredibly, we've made it through the whole trip. Not sure we'll be back more or less tired than when we left, but it sure was worth it! Thank you all for following our blog and big thanks to those of you who already participated in identifying some of the orchids we saw!

Day 18 - Road from Mendez to Riobamba

Let's start off with a nice breakfast at a small local restaurant, where they seem to be taking their coffee seriously.

Next, yet another "derrumbe" where debris fell down from heavy rains. Most people are blocked, but not when you have a 4x4 like we do! Up, up and away.

First stop (actually at the very end of the road, we decided to start at the highest point today) and immediately we find a nice Lepanthes sp. sitting on a rock with constant water flowing over it.

Next, this is a terrestrial orchid we've seen quite often in Ecuador, but no idea what it might be.

Walking along the road, we start stumbling onto more and more stuff (please remember we don't post every single orchid we've seen, that would just be too much to talk about), like this big-flowered Stelis sp.

2 meters further down, another one! Pleurothallis sp.

Here's an old friend we saw like a week or so ago. Lepanthes decurva (?)

Now here's a pretty one, small Stelis sp. reminding us of Stelis eublepharis or Stelis flexuosa, but the flowers are so much bigger and so white at the borders, it's gotta be something else.

Spotted from afar, this Elleanthus sp. was really easy to see. What a color!

Lots of Epidendrums around here, here's a couple we saw that were nice enough.