The Drive to Shell

On Friday when we drove to Shell, we saw a number of sights which were of special note.  Above is a picture of just a tiny portion of Quito which sits at roughly 9,000 feet in elevation among mountains that reach up more than another 5,000 feet toward the sky.  The city of roughly two million crawls up the sides of the mountains/volcanoes, as you can see here.

Next we drove through cities which were well populated but certainly not bigger than Quito.  Most had numerous street vendors, pedestrians lingering here and there, and lots of cars zooming in and out of side streets.  As we neared the latter part of our journey though the terrain changed and we began to drop in elevation as we came down the side of the mountain toward the jungle. 



Ahead we could see this amazing view of a river seeking to find the Ocean several hundred miles away. The lushness of the jungle became apparent and so did the reason for the green--cloud cover and a constant threat of rain. 

Behind us I discovered a view equally as terrific.  The clouds and mountains and river where vast and imposing. 

 

And all along the way we saw waterfall after waterfall.  The roads inside and out of the tunnels were soaked with rainwater. 

No matter where you look, everything is green, wet, and beautiful.  God certainly knows how to make a landscape!

 

 

And, the most wonderful part of it all, is that I took these pictures only about 20 minutes from where we live.  Don't you wish you lived in the jungle too?!  (I know you're laughing....)
Thanks for viewing. : )