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Well....after quite a poor week in Quito, we took of Friday afternoon to Cumandá, the bus terminal to meet with Shona and her parents who are over from Scotland at the moment. We caught the bus which should have only been 2hours but infact was 3. Made me laugh thinking about when we´re at home and travel to london we´re like ooo need to make sure we´ve got spare batteries, got enough food for the journey etc and now 3hours is nothing! 6 hours is nothing! We´re going to do a 24hour bus journey down to Peru!...We had some nice seco de pollo from one of the people who sell food on the buses...I laughed at myself as I bargained the guy 25cents which is the equivalent to 12p! Shows I´ve been living here too long!!
When we arrived Shona and her parents went off to the god knows how much a night hostel whilst Stef and I went on te hunt for a $4 hostel we´d seen in guide book...we arrived to find out it no longer existed!! But we managed to find another with a box for a room! Smaller than mine at home (my home here) which is saying something!
We then went out to look around...we found a really cute cafe which soldcoffee beans and nice ecuatorian chocolates and things. We asked to look at the menu to see whether it was going to be extortionate to find a hot chocolate infact onlky cost 60cents!! We were in shock!! We met Shona´s parents later that night for dinner and ate some good meat:) They very kindly paid for us. We were serenaded by a band in the restaurant whos songs all sounded the same! But they seemed very excited for each song all the same!
Next morning Stef and I accidently slept through the alarm and therefore missed the animal market! The shower was absolutely amazing!!! HOT water!! So hot that I had to put some cold on! Was well worth the $4!!
We spent 4hours in the market...bargaining to the last few cents!! We spent soooo much money..but got so many things to show for it...INCLUDING A PONCHO!!! HAHA! I love it!!
After shopping till we dropped we caught a taxi to the waterfall, Peguche, we had a nice walk up to this amazing waterfall...thats all I can say about that really!! We bought more at the little market there. We then caught a taxi to San Pablo who at first asked for $5 when we exclaimed that this was far to expensive he went on to justify himself my explaining that it was $2 to Otavalo and another $2.50 to San Pablo...we kindly pointed out that this actually adds up to $4.50...he thought about this for a moment and then said...ok ok $4!!
That afternoon we took a trip to a ´beautiful´lake San Pablo. It turned out to be quite dissappointing. The sky turned grey and it began to rain and get very cold...so the ´crystal waters´werent so crystally. We sat in what we thought was a cafe and then we asked the man in there whether we could buy food and he pointed to a small shack over the way. So shona and I bought some papas with an egg. Whilst waiting we saw some ladies walking their pigs which I found highly amusing we also chatted to the girl at the stall who asked us if we were staying with the family...we think that we were infact in someones house!! Oooops! But they were welcoming all the same and we thanked the man for pointing us to the stall and continued to sit in his dining room!
We caught the bus back to Otavalo and introduced Shona and her parents to our little cafe (we now felt regulars!) I ordered what I thought would be a smal pizza for $2 but it was actually huge!! I cant get over how cheap things are there compared to Quito! Shona stepped into help. Stef and I stayed there well into the evening, listening to the litlle bits of banta going on between the staff. The waiter appeared to new and the cook insisted on calling him niño (boy) Oscar. She also amusingly let my hot chocolate go over the boil.
Next day we woke up early again and went to Cotocatchi for the leather market only to find half a stall set up! We decided to catch a taxi for $10 to the lake of Cuicocha which is situated in the crater of a volcano. Our taxi waited there for an hour for us whislt we took a small boat trip around the lake and through the channel of enchanment, which was a beautiful pass through a mountain of lava that had built up in the middle of the lake. there are no fishes in the lake due to the temperature and unfit conditions of the water. You could see the bubbles in the water from the gases of the volcano.
We got back and went to our hostel to gather all our stuff. We bumped into Pete and Emily who had done a 5hour trek around the lake..they were coated in mud...glad we took the easy option!! We boarded the bus with about 3 extra bags each and our backpacks bursting at the seems!! A lady came on with some coconut icecreams (blatently made with dirty water...but we got stomachs of steal!! I´m yet to know what happened to shona´s parents who only arrived a week ago!) She told us they were 50cents each...when we asked her how much for 4 she said...ok ok 30cents each!! Needless to say...the Ecuadorians really lack business skills!! On the bus on the way home Stef and I witnessed about 10 police cars wizz past us and then saw a lorry surrounded by the police and men held down on the ground with police holding guns at the ready. I´d say there were around 30 police!and when we askked our taxi driver if he knew what had happened he said he didnt but he was suprised because the police never get there guns out!
Still yet to kow what actually happened....
Anyway thats my update for now. I´ve got thurs and fri off for bank holidays this week...so off to Baños to some canyoning and bridge jumping then on down to the beach me thinks:)
Hope all is well on your side of the world.
Much love and miss everyone as always x x
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