Hola from Otavalo, in the mountains north of Quito.
We had a huge day of travelling yesterday, leaving Galapagos on a delayed flight (by 1 hour) and then a further delay in the stopover at Guayaquil, while they changed a tyre on the plane....a little disconcerting, I can tell you.Then we took a taxi to the bus station in Quito, and would you believe it the taxi got a flat tyre half way there and kept driving on it ! We caught a local bus to make the trip to Otavalo, about 90 kms from Quito. We actually caught the bus outside the station.There is a fellow who shouts out from the bus...Otavalo, Otavalo, Otavalo to get customers as there are companies competing against each other. We were to learn to have small change handy at bus stations because you had to pay a small fee to leave the building to board the bus! It was pretty busy and took about an hour to get out of the city, and we didn´t realise that it was a public holiday, so that probably had more people on the move at that hour as well. The road to Otavalo is not for the faint hearted I can assure you and the sway on the bus at some turns had me grabbing Peter ,not that that would have made the slightest difference.Peter said it did occur to him that he hoped the flat tyre thing did not come in threes on the one day.Luckily he said nothing at the time.The mountains are just grand.The traffic was nonstop even into the night.
We arrived in the city in the dark, not having made any reservations and we were fortunate to get a very helpful taxidriver who took us to Valle de Amanecer which has a basic room, hot water and a super breakfast included, for 10 dollars each. The little cafe in Valle de Amanecer has really good food at cheap prices so we have eaten there.We have also visited the icecream shop across the corner. It is fantastic. It is called San Gerardo Heladeria. Everything on the menu is to die for and the most expensive item is 1.10.
We got up early and went to the animal market, but as we didn´t need goats, pigs,sheep or cows we just watched for a while. Some of the pigs made a terrible racket.Peter had read it was a must to come for the Saturday market as the animals are brought in then, but if you couldn't make it specifically on a Saturday,a wide variety of stalls is there all week.
Then later we walked kilometres exploring the craft and food markets. We have a few puppets for Morgan, couldn´t dissapoint her as we always find something for her work at markets, and some for Bec.
An important tip....have plenty of very small currency, as people , even at the hotel, do not like taking anything over 10dollars. We wondered if we were ever going to be able to buy anything, as it was impossible to get small notes even at the banks.There are armed security guards at the bank doors and they do not let you in sometimes. The cashier at a white goods shop changed money into smaller demoninations to save us.
We got a taxi to a lovely waterfall nearby,Peguche Waterfall and then caught the local bus back. Despite our extremely limited Spanish we are certainly getting about okay. We use our little book and as well people are patient. We had a talk to a lovely young French couple today waiting for the bus. They are over here working in Quito until May next year.
Tomorrow we are going to use the local bus to get to San Pablo Lake and Laguna de Cuicocha.We will head back to Quito Monday in the daylight to get the views.....if the nerves can handle it.
We will probably be in Quito for a few nights .
Hopefully Peter will get up some photos soon.
We have enjoyed your comments back to us, thanks.
