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Sorry its been so long since we updated this!
Following our month studying in Baños we both felt a bit sad to be leaving, particularly after realising that it is now one of the longest times we've ever stayed in a place except home! After a month desperately trying to see the volcano for more than a couple of minutes, it decided to show itself for hours as we drove away so that we could see it all the way to Cotapaxi (Ecuador´s highest volcano, and the highest active volcano in the world (i think!!)). Unfortunately Cotapaxi was feeling a bit shy and completely covered in clouds, in an otherwise almost cloudless sky!!
Our initial experience of Quito hadnit been great, the new town area had felt dangerous and following our flight from Spain we´d been in a bit of a hurry to leave Quito!! So we decided to stay in the old town area. On arrival it was like a different city, tiny cobbled streets, beautiful old buildings and it felt safe to walk anywhere at night! The highlights were climbing the city Cathedral, up dodgy ladders and crossing about the ceiling of the Cathedral on wooden planks, and just wondering around the beautiful plazas! Oh.. and watching Transformers 3 at the cinema, although the 3D wasn't great when you were in the front row about 2m from the screen!
After a couple of days we travelled to Otavalo, a couple of hours north of Quito. Otavalo has the biggest market in South America and there has been a market on the site for thousands of years! For the first couple of days in town we didn't allow ourselves to go near the market square as the market is always big but on Saturdays the whole town turns into a market and we had to wait until then!!
We were very excited on market day and it wasn't a let down, our hostel was on a road just off the main market plaza and on Saturday morning we looked out the window to find the whole street full of stalls and a market that stretched as far as you could see in every direction! The market is run by local indigenous people and is also a social event so there were lots of indigenous people wearing traditional clothing with beautiful blouses. We spent most of the day wondering round and shopping, and I finally got the alpaca blanket that I've been after since we first arrived! The following day I had a bit of a down turn with my stomach illness and had to promptly find a chemist to get some more antibiotics, which made for a difficult bus journey to the Columbian border.
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