Hosteria Chorlavi Ibarra

Otavalo, Ibarra, Cotacachi, Laguna Quicocha (Northern Ecuador)

This weekend, I was "interpreter" and Ania was “spatially and directionally adept person who can point us in the right direction.” However, we both played the role of “chronic, paranoid worriers (CPWs).” You will see as this story unfolds. Ania and I left Quito for Otavalo with our assigned roles, as a team ready to conquer the world. At the initial bus terminal, one ...

... anyway, and 2) he made such a fuss about this question being absolutely imperative that we started to think something was amiss. Thankfully a helpful American bloke went and satiated Pedro´s irritating concern by extracting from the the taxi driver that the price to the bus terminal was $5. Good times. The driver was really nice and helpful, and we were at the bus terminal in 15 minutes.

On arrival we spent a rather confused 20 minutes wandering about wondering where to find the ...

... of the old town where little kids wanted to hear us say Hola and giggled, and there were lots of beautiful old buildings and little churches dotted about. The streets are narrow in the old town and then you come out to pretty squares. One square had a map in the ground beside some chess sets that showed the old town – La Basilica is young enough not to be included there. It was a nice sunny day and we stopped for a freshly squeezed fruit juice. One large square had art work on ...

... then sat in the back of a truck with our bikes back to baños. i had brought humitas from quito, so we ate those for lunch. humitas are like of like cornbread covered in a corn husk...but better. although i were exhausted, i ended up hanging out with everyone until around 1 a.m. needless to say, i slept very well. (in trying to get video, i ran out of space on my memory card...i will add the rest of the photos when i marianna sends them to me!)

... Mariscal district of Quito, fondly nicknamed Gringola, you figure it out. To cater to all the whities around, there are a plethora of bars, clubs, resturants and cafe that seem to be open at all hours of the day, except sunday. After spending six weeks in tranquility, minus canoa, I was relatively ready to see what this town has to offer. Days have been going kinda like this; I get up for the worst free breakfast ever, only served before ...

Zip, zip, tube, rapel Its the Aussie influence Wild on Ecuador! Ecuador continues to surprise and delight as we move northward through the lush green countryside. We journeyed on from Riobamba with Luke and Holly, our Aussie buddies, and found ourselves in a beautiful town called Baños. Tranquil and lovely, nestled in an Andean valley, Baños is known for its thermal baths ...

... with a very hospitable Quito police (Javier!). I essentially had a private tour since there was no one else there who was interested in the tour. He took me to a bunch of churches, and I even got to witness an Ecuadorian wedding happen before my very eyes. It made me miss the Philippines. The wedding ceremony and festivities afterwards were pretty similar to where I came from. [Tip: I suggest taking the morning walking tours because almost all of the churches and ...

I have a s**i*us beef with these girls d*wn h**e. They live h**e their wh*le life, and they nev** bring a jacket at night. I always bring *ne because I am kinda smart, and I kn*w it will be c*ld. I always have t* be a gentleman and *ff** them my jacket, and *f c*urse they take it, s* I am ****ing c*ld. N*t fair, right? I insist they bring *ne, and still, they sh*w up with a spaghetti string t*p, I c*uld strangle them. If it's night time, I aut*matically bring tw ...

Remember the National Lampoons European adventure when the Griswalds cross from France to England. Clark and the gang had been treated to some of the finest French hospitality. They insulted his wife, propositioned his daughter.... all in all they were your stereotypical French *******s. When arriving in England, he ran over the same cyclist twice by driving on the wrong side of the road, and the half dying man couldn`t be more apologetic... blood spewing from every ...

dimanche 14 7:30 dans les starting block pour avoir des places pour le trein de la Libertad qui va d´Ibarra à Salinas. rencontre avec Dayla (costa ricaine) Vanesa (españole) et Juan Antonio (equatorien) se cultive là bas la canne à sucre et existent des mines de sel! ils sont en trian de transformer la ville car de plus en plus de tourisme viennent: rues pavées, vaste projet d´accueil avec des restos et hôtels.