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We got up this morning to be dosed with a cold - the room last night was freezing. We went to a really nice bakery for breakfast and heading up the town to see if we could arrange some sort of tour. We arrived just in time to get a tour of the indigenous communities with two guys called Claudio and Romano.
We stopped by a hotel to pick up a group of 2 american families. Some of the group were quite interesting, some boring with nothing to say and some just plain weridos. We did have some strange conversations with them as the day progressed but mostly we were freaked out by the boy/girl called Alex (way to make it easy for us).
We went to several different communities throughout the day and bought some handicraps - stuff that was kinda silly but meh, we´re on our holidays. The first place was a totora weaving community where they made mats and bowls etc from this tall reed that grows by the banks of San Pablo. It´s really tough stuff so we got a woven bowl and a llama (a woven one, the animal market is tomorrow).
The next community wove tapestries from sheeps wool. There were some pretty impressive tapestries including a fantastic colourful one that was perhaps a tad too expensive at $45. Lisa bought a smaller one with people on it that looks amazing and was only $15.
We visited a town famous for it´s musical instruments where a woman demonstrated how to make pan pipes from all over south america and how to play all the different instruments that she had. Matthew bought an ocarina with a Lizard on it.
We visited the Peguche waterfall that was a 10minute walk up a street to a little winding path which took another 10minutes but had such beautiful views of the waterfall. We walked up so close to the actual waterfall that we got soaked and nearly drenched the camera. Nobody else dared venture as close as us. We were legends within the group and Claudio wrote a song about us that will be sung for hundreds of years. The toilets cost 10c but were the nicest toilets so far.
On the way back to the car we walked past a school having a "leaving for the summer" party that looked pretty lively but we were too much craic for such a party so we moved on... maybe it was that we were much too old and that it was a primary school party... I guess we´ll never know.
We went to Cuicocha Lake which had the most spectacular panoramic views. We could have stayed up there all day taking photos and enjoying the sun. It was a lake that formed in a volcanic crater with 2 islands in the middle both the size of mountains.
After lunch we went to a woodwork shop where they carved to order. There was a huge carving of Jesus that was ordered by a nearby church. We got to see the carvings at every stage of the process which was really good. The statue of Jesus was so perfect that it looked like it had been made in a plastic mold.
We moved on to a few woodwork shops in the town of Ibarra. Lisa got ripped off for a chess set but we were just happy to get it and would have paid almost anything. It was only $8 but Claudio said they´d be cheaper in the market tomorrow. When we got out of the car this crazy lady ran up behind Claudio and gave him this big hug which really scared the life out of him but he kept his cool and sort of laughed it off. We later joked that she was his friend, then his girlfriend, his wife and finally his mother.
Got back to Otavalo an hour ago and are going to head for a late dinner and an early night. Getting up at 6am to check out the animal market and then the crafts market before we leave for Cusco.
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