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Today we began our two day tour, we got picked up from Q bar in Quito where we were given a free coffee included in our trip. However they wouldn't give us even a tiny bit of milk and so Kat and I didn't drink ours.
We then headed to the market at Pujilí, here there were lots of different stalls selling fruit and vegetables as well as meat stalls where they had pig, cow and chicken heads! Browny took some pictures of the egg stalls as research for happy eggs and Kat bought a banana for 10c. We were warned not to take pictures as the locals then tell you you have to pay $1/$2, but I managed to sneak a few!
After we went to an indigenous house, they are made of a straw type material. It was very small, basic and dark, there were loads of guinea pigs running around on the floor, they guide picked one up as tried to give it to me but they looked like giant rats! The families who live in them are very poor and we each gave them a $1 on the way out.
Next we headed for the Quilotoa crater, the view from the top was stunning. We headed down to the edge of the lake this took us about 45minutes, the path was really sandy and at some points we were sliding down, Nath had a bit of a fall and cut his hand but otherwise was ok. At the bottom there was lots of people with mules which took you back to the top, Kat, Browny and I all got one but Nay decided to walk. I had quite a small mule and he slipped a few times which was quite scary and at one point he just stopped and made a horrible screaming noise! I don't think he enjoyed his trek up. Kat's mule was storming ahead and she had an 11 year old boy leading hers, she said he kept getting out of breath and she kept saying he could stop for a bit but he would stop for a few seconds and carry on. Apparently they go down and up around 3 times a day - they're much fitter than I am!
After our trek uphill it was time for a well deserved (maybe for nath!) lunch, we were then heading back to the hostel. Here we were shown to our rooms, Browny and I were put in an outhouse which had a massive gap under the door so was freezing! We were really jealous of Kat and Nathan who were inside the main building in what we thought was a luxury, warm room. It turned out that there room was actually colder than ours though and we were quite snug in the end with our heater on.
We had our last dinner together and a few games of cards before we headed to bed ready to climb Cotopaxi in the morning!
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