Today was the same as yesterday, breakfast not too early then Luis picked us up for a trip to the market at Otavalo, a couple of hours from Quito. The market is for handicrafts and food, and the Wednesday market is particularly good for handicrafts - it was fairly quiet when we got there, and we soon got to grips with negotiating - luis had suggested 10% and that was all we ever got ! we tried to be selective and managed to pick up a few artefacts, jewellery, ba...

The last day at Pachijal began a little more easily than the previous 2 - without the need for an early start we finally managed to get more than a cold drip out of the shower and had a warm drip instead! The morning after breakfast was spent on the rooftop of the lodge looking at insects, birds and generally fooling around waiting for our trip back to Santa Barbara in Quito, which by now felt like home! Siena's hand was still swollen but not getting any worse s...

we're now back in quito and chilling out. first stop is all the entries for the last 10 days, so check out the galapagos and pachijal blogs which have an earlier date! and SEND MORE MESSAGES!

We set off after breakfast with Pierre, Wilson (with machete) and Elvis (the bird spotter!) to hike to Rio Pachijal. Siena's hand had swelled up alarmingly over night and when we showed it to Pierre he sent Sandro (who had spent 7 years with a medicine man!) off into the forest to get some plants - which must have had some powers because Siena almost fainted when the 2 saps were applied - although whether it had any effect on the swelling is debatable. The wal...

Not too painful a start, although our Spanish isn't getting any better (closest we got on the ship was ordering dos cervesas, and talking French to our Belgian co-diners)! So we still guessed at breakfast. Luckily scrambled eggs seems to be universal. Pierre, the co-owner, Swiss by birth but having lived in Africa, Italy, and several places in South America (courtesy of Save the Children), collected us and took us on the 'ecoroute' over the Pinchincha volcano vi...