Back to Quito now

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Well we´ve had a change of plan!!! Didn´t make it to the thermal springs, as the north of the country decided to go on strike and blockade all the roads...but I guess the fact that half of the Intag Valley, which has been battling copper miners polluting their land, and the fact they have never had a water supply kind of comes ahead of my birthday...BUT it kind of made us think as we were heading further north after that to another farm...that we are going to have a lot of farm when we get back (we doing a sustainable land use course at Ragmans Farm, for three months) that we´ve changed our plan and are head ing to the coast to have a kind of holiday within a holiday..so later today we head for 11 hours to the Machahilla Coastal Park see http://www.parksinperil.org/wherewework/southamerica/ecuador/protectedarea/machalilla.html for more information or http://www.ecuador-pictures.org/galapagos_l.asp?r=coast&c=Machalilla%20National%20Park ...for pictures

we´re going to spend about ten days there before heading inland for the mountains,,,as well as chilled beaches there´s lots of archaeology, rain forest, cloud forest, dry forest, islands with lots of amazing wildlife, dolphins ...so we´ll let you know how it goes.

I don´t know if any of you have been to South America before...but the bus drivers are crazy!!!! From Otavalo back to Quito you come down the Pan American Highway which sounds like it should be a major road but in Ecuador this means its not a dirt track..its kind of a windy road that plunges up and down the Andes and bus driver sign a pact with god or the devil that they will survive overtaking three other buses, going uphill on a corner, with an oil tanker coming straght at you and a 2500ft drop on the other side. It was very cheering to hear that a bus had gone over the edge killing 41 people, just the month before! Anyway its a good time to put on your eye patchs, plug in the i-pod and meditate on the fact that if it is your time to go then it just is..that´s all there is to it.

We really enjoyed staying in the north, ok there´s lots of things to see and do but at the same time its good to be still and just watch people, the Otavaleno´s are really beautiful, the men all keep their hair long, generally wear agave dyed deep blue poncho´s, pure white trousers and white canvas pumps, the women wear long navy folded skirts, hand embroidered blouses, with handwoven belts, it is an area where traditions are withheld but at the same time modernity and trade are embraced...and for once they seem to have kept the balance betwen the two, where one thing isn´t traded for the other.

Where we were staying had the most amazing views as we were on the top floor... Ecuador is the land of Volcano´s and we had a 360 degree view... to the south Volcan Fuya Fuya, to the west Volcan Cotacachi and to the East Volcan Imbabura and in the distance south east Volcan Cayambe see http://www.ecuador-pictures.org/galapagos_l.asp?r=coast&c=Machalilla%20National%20Park for pictures.... by the way..really frustratingly my camera has broken and I can´t take any photos´s ...its like losing a limb!

Anyway we´re off to the museum and to pick our washing up from the lady down the road

Adio amigos

lots of love keri and pete

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