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I know I know I´m really behind with my blog now I have left it ages to bother to write I just kep forgetting things and it annoys me!!
Anyways last weekend we went to a market town 2 hours north or Quito called Otavalo. It was me, Carla (suprise suprise) Shona and her parents. We caught the supposed 2 hour bus (which took more like 3 but was still an awful journey...the usual...overtaking on blind corners, ragging it about in the rain on country roads. not somethin i would recommend!!) Eventually we arrived...Shona and her parentals went off to find some luxery hotel whilst carla and I headed in town to find a cheap shack to stay in...oh yeah we found a $4 a night place WITH hot showers i might add...definately worth the money despite the fact our rooms were boxes and Carla scared herself the first night as the hostel owner was slightly odd so she carshed on my tiny single bed with me for BOTH nights. my back was killing me!!
We then wandered around town as we wernt due to meet shona and her parents for an hour or so. We went to the main plaza which was beautiful as they always are in Ecuador then went to find a cafe or something. we stumbled across a really nice little place an thought ok we can spash out for one hot chocolate...only to discover it was $0.60....BARGAIN!!! it was yummy!! enjoyed it evn more coz of the price :) that is cheap even for ecuador!! Off we then went to meet the others for dinner and we went to a decent restaurant which is fairly unusal for us!! we were seranaded by a band was lovely. it wasnt particularly ecuadorian but nice all the same. i had trout and vegetables...a total rarity here and have been craving brocalli since (never thought i would say that!!) After dinner we just went back to the hostel to carsh as we had a 5 am start (well so we thought) as we wanted to go to the Animal market the next morning...
6.15 I woke up having slept through the alarm..with a text from shona saying she had cow poo all over her flip flops. needless to say we wernt disappointed to not have gone!! we took our time getting ready, spending a good 30 mins in the hot showers each!! and went to find some breakfast, was strange as the market started at 8 but at 7.45 nothing was open bar one panderia (bread shop) so we had a slice of cake and bottle of water each... so much for our diets!!
CArla and I headed down to the market which actually covered the whole town...was enormous no joke!! we thought we would spend a couple of hours browsing...6 hours and $150 later we had finished. bought almost all your prezzies tho so dont fret!! we then met Shona and her parents and went down to Peguche a local waterfall which was beautiful. there are so so so many waterfalls here yet they never cease to amaze me. they are just beautiful and a camera just cannot capture it.
From there we went to San Pablo a supposed beautiful lake but we managed to go just as the cloud and rain came in so the ´beautiful´lake just looked like Hamble...the water was murky and the views...well there wernt any views!! to shelter from the rain we went and sat in what we thought was a restaurant/cafe sort of thing..only when Shona went to ask for food the man told us we had to go to the stall outside..odd we thought. Carla and Shona went off to buy some Salchipapas and the vendor there asked us if we were staying with the family.....errrr.....oooopsss!! looks like we were sat in their dining room!! needless to say we carried on sitting there!! ... it was cold and they didnt say anything!! also...we saw women taking their pigs for a walk...leads and everythin haha was amusing!!
We then took Shona and her rents back to our wee cafe...we started to feel like regulars by this point....yeah they recogniced us...maybe thats coz were gringas (white people? not sure!!! Carla managed to buy the biggest pizza i have seen for $2 which i swas well impressed with!! we stayed there most of the night (just me and Carz the others went somewhere else) just listening to the banter between the staff which was cool.
Next day we went to Cotacachi a small lather town just north of Otavalo...another early start. cant blame Imogen for wanting to miss the queues this time though!! and when we arrived at the supposed sunday market...we found one half made stall...not impressed and the shops didnt open till 11 (we were there at 9) so off we headed to Cuicocha which is a lake in a crater of a volcano but with two islands in the middle made of lava. they were enormous tho. we took a boat trip around the lake, the water was 16 degrees, not that we were allowed to swim in it. you could see bubbles of gas in the water. the water was the bluest water i have ever seen but obviously the pictures will never show that. at some parts the water was 180 m deep. i was listening to this guide intently!! was really interesting. theyre doing loads of test on the island at the minute which is why were not allowed on them. but wolves, guinea pigs and other animals live on these islands but no-one knows how they got there! the islands used to be used as prisons as no-one could ever surivive on them. we went through the channel of enchantment which is the channel between the islands. was interesting but wouldnt go as far as saying enchanting!!
after our boat ride we went back to cotacachi to spend some serious cash. i bought a leather jacket, leather bag, leather purse and leather belt!! was so cheap compared to england!!
off we went to have our mid shopping food and ended up eating cuy...to you guys thats guinea pig!!!!! it was really nice actually, i really wnated to eat the brains but they had alreayd taken it out, along with the heart etc!! it tastes a bit like salty duck i guess and there is hardly any meat on it!!
we didnt do much else that day, except on the way home on the bus we had just got into quito when the traffic hit...what we then realised was that it was coz of the police, about 30 of them had held up 2 lorrys and there were about 7 men lying on the floor with the police holding guns to them. that was nearly two weeks ago and i still dont knw what happened!! we spoke to a taxi driver later that night and he said it must have been serious as the police never draw their guns!!
so that was that weekend....
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