Ecuador
Trip Start
Sep 07, 2006
1
34
52
Trip End
Ongoing
Quito,
Ecuador
Monday, March 12, 2007
Unfortunately at the beach Kirsten stepped on a piece of wood which pierced the bottom of her foot. It got worse and by the time we got to Quito Ecuador two days later it was quite infected and causing her a lot of pain. We took her to see a doctor and luckily with some antibiotics she is now feeling better.
Quito was probably my favourite city that we have visited so far. Both the old town and new town are great. We spent one night out in the new town which was fun. Afterwards we took a bus two hours north of Quito to Otavalo for the Saturday markets. The markets were great but I now have a lighter wallet and a heavier backpack. Among the things I bought were some jewellry, a t-shirt, a hat, a scarf and a chess set. The chess set will be hard to carry for the next two months but I had to have it. Itīs so pretty and itīs the spanish versus the incas. In Otavalo we also split with John who will be travelling separately to meet us in Cuzco, Peru since he wanted to see different things. The three of us girls went out dancing on our night in Otavalo. It was lots of fun and interesting music. It was a live band that played on guitar and traditional instruments.
We then travelled to Latacunga and on to Banos. Banos was a great little town where we spent the afternoon horseback riding. It was a 3 hour trip that took us up over the town and to where we can see the ash being spit out of the active volcano that is nearby. There is clearly no health and safety regulations here in Ecuador. On the way down the mountain the horses had to go down very steep paths covered in rocks. They kept slipping which is a bit scary when you are on the horses back. We didnīt even have helmets so that could have ended badly. It was all lots of fun though.
We are now in Guaranda which is a little town where there doesnīt appear to be any other tourists. We will be leaving tomorrow and heading for Cuenca.
