Shopping
Trip Start
Jan 16, 2008
1
17
35
Trip End
Apr 19, 2008
Quito,
Ecuador
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Arrived back here around lunch time on Friday and spent the afternoon battling with useless Internet cafe's trying to sort out photos. We've managed to get them backed up to the ipod at least, but still haven't sorted the last ones from Panama & everything from Costa Rica. Hopefully the internet cafe on Isla Isabella where we'll be for the next month is better than the ones here in Quito. They seem to all be pretty old - USB 2.0 isn't normal - and they've come up with the idea that putting 2 or 4 screens on the same PC and having 2 or 4 people using it at the same time is a good idea. It's not quite as bad as it sounds, but it isn't good - especially when the machines aren't so fast. Anyway, some time we'll manage to get everything sorted and load up some more photos.
Yesterday we got up early and took the bus up to Otovalo where they have a big hand craft market. They have it every day of the week, but on Saturdays it is huge. Heaps of great stuff to buy - bags, ponchos, hats, jerseys, blankets, scarves etc... We splashed out and bought a couple of hooded tops knitted in pure alpaca wool for the princely sum of US$14 each plus a couple of scarves, also alpaca, for US$6 each. I picked up a couple of new wallets for US$6 each and we topped it off with a new bag to hold all our loot. We could probably have gotten most of that even cheaper, but you don't want to bargain too much - a dollar to us is worth way less than a dollar to these guys.
Today we moved hostels and then headed back into town. The new hostel is in new town, so we've been looking around here a bit. To be honest it sucks. I really don't like this part of town. It feels less safe, very touristy and well, just not like the Ecuador we've learnt to know over the past week. Only positive thing in this part of town is Mama Clorinda - a restaurant where they serve guinea pig. It's something of a specialty here in the Andes, although more in Peru than Ecuador. Here it seems to be more of a festival type food, although it is permanently on the meny at Mama Clorinda. How does it taste? Well, the closest I can say is something like a gamey chicken. It is a lot like quail actually - even down to the massive amounts of tiny bones. Interesting, and pretty good, but nothing really special. Expensive restaurant too - cost US$28 for lunch (the beers cost $2.50 instead of the more usual $1), but worth it to have tried guinea pig.
We're now more or less checked in for our volunteer program on Galapagos. We'll be meeting the local crowd, Ordex, at 6pm to go through everything and then tomorrow morning at 8:15 we fly out to the islands. Super!
