Lazy day

Today was just a lazy day. We went to see the changing of the guard at the presidential palace. It was an impressive ceremony. We even got to see the president of the country who was on the balcony.

                        
                 The president

Tap on you tube link to see
    
http://youtu.be/Lwg8e4amDSY

http://youtu.be/SeUjMJgOCHc


Spent the rest of the afternoon painting.

Cotopaxi pictures

                                    

                                                    

         

Cotopaxi

Another early start today. We met our tour in down town Quito. Only 5 of us are on the tour, a couple from Brazil, a man from Holland, AL and myself. To get to Cotopaxi is about an hour an a half drive. Once we were near Cotopaxi, we stopped at a beautiful hacienda to pick up the dirt bikes we will need for riding down the mountain. When everything was loaded we drove into the national park. The park has been closed off and on since November because of recent volcanic activity. From the highway you can see steam and ash coming off the summit. The ride up the mountain was beautiful. Mostly low growth plants and trees. We had a brief stop at the first station where our guide explained the vegetation we'd find on the mountain and how it has been used by the local people. We then went to Laguna Limpiopungo. It's on a plateau just below the mountain. There we saw wild horses, cows and a variety of birds around the lagoon. We hiked around the lagoon for about 2.5 miles. We could also see on the mountain the upper shelter. We could not go up to it because they have closed that section of the mountain. People who hike the summit stay there and hike the summit at midnight. It is when the snow and ice terrain is most stable. They hike six hours to the summit and get there just at dawn. It must be beautiful but I'll settle for seeing the videos. The weather at our level was sunny but chilly. I was happy I had worn layers.

Then some real fun began. We all got on our dirt bikes and began the one hour ride down the mountain. It really was an adrenaline rush even though people probably could have pasted me walking. My bike was the one with the steam coming off the breaks as my fingers grew numb from holding the breaks.

I'll post someone else's video from YouTube that will give you the feel of the experience.

Touch
Cotopaxi down hill,

Cotacachi

After visiting Otavalo we went on to Cotacachi. We first stopped at the Laguna de Cotacachi. The dark lagoon is cradled in a collapsed volcanic crater. It has two mounded islands that shot up in later eruptions. It is at the base of the volcano Cotacachi. In ancient times the indigenous people would bring animals to this lagoon to sacrifice to the gods. We walked part of the rim of the lagoon looking for hummingbirds and taking pictures. Our next stop was to the town of Cotacachi for lunch. It was a pretty little town that is best know for its leather goods. After lunch we spent some time shopping. Between Otavali and Cotacachi it was an expensive day. I will have to throw out more old clothes from my suitcase to make room for new stuff. We headed back to Quito very weary and arrived in Quito around 6:30.. Shopping can be exhausting.
Tomorrow we have booked a trip to Cotopaxi.

Otavalo

Our day started early, 6:30, we took a cab to downtown Quito to meet with our tour. There were about 15 of us. All ages all nationalities. Many of them young woman who were traveling for weeks alone around South American. Our first stop was another Equator line site, ( it's a long line of latitude)  this a a non profit organization and it had some very interesting historical and scientific information about the Equator. You can visit their web site.www.quitsato.org.

After that we stopped for breakfast where we saw them making by hand corn biscottis and then cooking them in a wood fire. Mmmmmmm.

We made to the  Otavalo market about 11 and that was a wonderful experience of sights and sounds. Every Saturday and Sunday the town square closes down for these merchants to set up booths. It was fun to wander around and see the wide variety of goods.

 

Most of the merchant were dresses in indigenous clothing. One native woman on our tour explained the meaning of the wardrobe.

¿Donde esta?

We said goodbye to Bahia at 8:00. At the bus station was easy to figure out which bus was going to Quito. It was a seven hour bus ride but once we left the coast the landscape became green and lush. We past large plantations growing bananas, cattle farms and small villages. At one point our bus had to wait for a herd of cattle to get off the road before it could pass. As we got higher in the Andes the switchbacks became more frequent and we saw beautiful waterfalls cascading off the mountain ridges. An added bonus was the bus's movie theme was not The Fast and The Furiest 1-2--3-4 but romantic comedies. They were all in Spanish and in two of the three movies the child dies. We got to our hotel in Quito about 3. We picked a different hotel in the Old Town area for a change. It's very nice and has two rooms. (Gives us both a break ). We walked around the old city and visited more churches and museums. As poor as these people are, they have given a lot of money to the Catholic Church. At night we visited a neat part of old town called Ronda. It was filled with small artisan shops and little restaurants that all had live entertainment. We went to one that was tucked away off the street and they had an outstanding musician playing the Spanish guitar. Very romantic but      ¿ Dónde esta mi hombre?

 We have booked a tour for Otavalo for tomorrow.

                                                         
 

Ready to head back to Quito

Day 23...Wednesday, January 27th
It was a long travel day. We left Puerto Lopez for a one hour cab ride to Manta. There we were dropped off at the bus stop to try and figure 'what next'. It was a little chaotic but we were able to get a bus ride to Bahia de Caraquez. This was a long and dusty ride through not very pretty scenery. Really arid areas and really poor areas. Again, another Fast and Furiest movie on the bus. When we finally pulled in to Bahia around 3, we were very disappointed. They were doing road work on the main road so there was road dust everywhere. They had a few modern hotels along the beach area but the were very "Soviet Union circa 1966" in style. We visited a local museum that had lots of information about the indigenous people of Ecuador but all the information was in Spanish. Poor AL, a curse to not be proficient in Spanish. We walked the malecon, beach side, but the water was filled junk. There were some great waves toward the end of the beach and it was fun watching the surfers. The sunset was also a nice feature. Our hotel is our least favorite and we do not sleep alone.....a gecko shares the room with us. AL and I agree it's time to head back to Quito. We'll catch the earliest bus out tomorrow morning.