Hotel Montecarlo Ibarra

... by 4 or 5 regional bus companies. There are two large, connected concrete buildings there which house, on the outside but under cover, 10 or so almuerzo restaurants with outdoor tables, and artesania vendors. But the real treasures are to be found inside the buildings. One building is filled with stalls selling all the produce and fruits you could want, attended by local ladies, and occasionally gents, just waiting to make the best deal possible. The problem ...

... to be more pictures of men, goodlooking men, and today we are glad to be able to respond to these needs while, at the same time, have the tires on the bikes fixed correctly. For this reason, we decided to have the tires checked once again, a second time, for good measure. We hope the results go noticed.

Now with the tire repaired we headed towards Quito, about 100 miles south through ...

... s say we’re going to Quito and not tell them about going to Ibarra…Maybe we can tell the guards….They do have strong security and burn robbers alive in Otavalo.” We tried to forget about the two men and enjoy the view of the mountains and valleys outside of the window. The bus eventually reached Otavalo, and I held my breath as we stepped off the bus...surprisingly, both of the men got off and departed on their own ways. Phew! So ...

... it's polylepis trees which had paper like bark which sheded to stop other plants growing on it. Only 11kms of the once 67km polylepis forest is left.

The lodge is also only 15kms from the columbian border. I meet the dog I want, his name was Aaron and was a rot weiler. That night after dinner we went into the middle of the forest with these candle sticks and our guide ...

... we skipped to watch movies in the hostel. Better safe than sorry!) After getting the hell out of Quito we high-tailed it to nearby Mindo, a fantastic little rain forest town recommended by our cousin Ethan, who lived in Ecuador for a time. Here we kept up our extreme sports with a great ziplining tour through the cloud forest. Weeeeeee! We also tubed down a raging ...

... out the door and down the street, changing bills and coins with taxi drivers, street merchants, relatives, etc., until the $4 change could be made. So we knew a hundred was going to be a challenge. Sure enough, after two banks (waiting in line at one for 15 minutes) and a casa de cambio, we found a bank that would give us change-Banco Del Pacifico. The teller tried to give us $20s but we asked for smaller bills and he ...

... oh how I covetted the tiny ginger piglets!). There were bigger pigs, goats, sheep and cows in the serious buyers´ field. Surely it wasn´t that long ago the same could be seen in the UK? The food and crafts market was at least 10 blocks square and I managed to restrain myself to just the one replacement handbag. There was a guy selling his own original watercolour paintings of local birds which were utterly exquisite and if I´d had a home I´d have ...

... eith**, was tired, headache. S* we g* int* t*wn and he's picking up dudes, *ne *f them with military fatigue and a big gun. We are all packed in the car, like eight *f us. L**ked like a cl*wn car and ****. We g* back th**e and they get *ut and have s*me w*rds with the *wn** *f the h*use and pr*ceed t* take the truck. Anyway, he's ****** and driving like a madman. We are c*ming d*wn the m*untain, and th**e is this d*g in the street. I say, "watch *ut f*r the d ...

... then it is the mountains, green and painted with farms. I will rewrite this at some stage and try get it right but this is the rough idea for now. But Ibarra is lovely and we didn`t even do anything there. Just ate ice cream beans and little sweet bananas in the plaza, drank too many cocktails while listening to live music and watching the locals celebrating some kind of festivity, drunk and dancing. Oh...and the blackberry syrup...with fresh cheese on bread....mmmmm.

... new life in the foreign land. Our stupid ambassadorial smiles hiding a somewhat guilty conscience. I so wanted to fold them up in my back pack, between the newly bought Ecuadorian rugs and bottles of mora syrup, only to neatly unflod them 6 months later to their new lives, so much more prosperous and financially secure. I told them how much we need their services. Our environment going to ****, our rivers drying up, our a/c machines cranked, our ever so ...