San Jorge Eco Lodge Quito

... br>
We walked out the entrance of the park and headed off down the road towards the real middle of the world and the museum of equatorial science. It turns out that 12 years ago the U.S military used GPS and calculated the actual equator. The French it turns out were off by 200m, so this secondary museum was built and it is filled with middle school science experiments and traditional FFs (Fun ...

... we asked to take a picture of her climbing a ladder so that we could capture the moment. She consented, and insisted that we take a series of beauty shots with different combinations of people, situations, and hair positioning. She was into it. We wanted to get down. Badly.
Fast forward to the other tower, the bell tower on the opposite side of the cathedral (which we reached by crossing a shaky wooden bridge over the ...

... even suggested seeing a nearby crater, which was vast and breathtaking - wispy clouds danced around the edges, revealing mountain tops opposite our vantage point.

Two days later, Karen picked us up again in her trusty Honda CRV and this time we ventured north to Otavalo, an Indian city from where our hostel got its name. Karen tactfully maneuvered the mountainous roads to deliver us at a colorful Indian craft market. I purchased a bracelet ...

... that it wasnt right and that we had to take another bus to get where we needed to go! At that point we were so upset about the whole thing that we just jumped into a taxi which brought us there within 15 minutes - so the whole ordeal took almost 3 hours and should have only taken about 45 min from where our hostel was *grrrr* Luckily it was only 3 hours from there to Baņos and we were just so glad when we finally got there at 3pm instead of 12pm...

... to the Queen Ann’s hostel. Just down the road from our hostel was a great little square but as we drove past it we saw the most disturbing thing. A policeman on motorcycle harassing two women by driving right at them and when they scattered he’d turn around and accelerate at them again. They were outraged and scared and it was totally bizarre, I was kind of thrown by that. By the time we were getting out of our cab they had ...

... is definitely applicable here. But the kids enjoyed riding in the back. Zoe and I, being more conservative, rode in the cabin.

As we left the city behind us we encountered mountains covered in terraced farming that made the mountain look like it was covered with a patchwork quilt. At San Pablo Lake, we stopped at a couple of haciendas and a lakeside 5 star hotel with llamas feeding on a grassy knowl. At another ...

... There were thousands of people all dressed up in their traditional dress. They all danced in circles wih instruments to this very repeditive tune. I had a corn cob on a stick covered in cheese stuff and also a grape kabab stick thing covered in toffee, so good! This was also the leather town so after 2 years of looking I finally found not one but two leather satchels which are amazing quality and I got them both for $80. I'm wrapped. Lorna also got a ...

... we got to a shop on the main square which was owned by a local sculptor. Here the carvings were fantastic - very striking and original. Unfortunately everything was a little too big to take home - Paul really wanted an 8 foot circular carving but I put my foot down and said no! (I think the US $1000 price tag also put him off!). We then headed to nearby Cotacachi to view the leather shops - what a find! Should you ever need a jacket for an 1980 ...

... puffing by the time I hit the registration office (of course, itīs up 1 flight of stairs!). I rolled into the sack, thinking, WOW, I made it! I didn't especially like the looks of Quito, so I was up at 10AM, and rolled back to the bus station, for Tulcan, a city on the frontera, which has hotels with real TV. I wanted to watch the election results on CNN! Hopefully!