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From Bogota, we drove out to a nearby town (on a private bus) called Villa de Leyva. It´s a very pretty place (when the sun shines - it was a bit of a struggle to see this when we first arrived as it was tipping it down with rain), with a huge main square (Plaza Mayor) and lots of quaint cobbled streets (bit of a challenge in the rain!). The main square itself is completely cobbled which is quite unusual and it´s a lot quieter than other squares of its size - it´s actually one of the largest in South America. We woke up the next day to beautiful sunshine and took the private bus again for a day of sightseeing in the surrounding area. First stop was "El Fosil", who was an ancient dinosaur, looking like a cross between a crocodile and a dolphin, and was called Cronosaurus. He was pretty big, as you can see from the photo when I sat next to him!
Next stop was an ancient fertility site, complete with many many stone carvings of "fertility symbols"... these were big carvings, and there were loads of them! Apparently it was believed that if a local
woman was having trouble getting pregnant, then she only had to spend a couple of nights here and the problem would be solved.... maybe something in the water?! On the way back to Villa de Leyva we stuck on an exceptionally muddy road (so this doesn´t only happen to Tucan trucks!) and spent about an hour trying to get out, using various tactics which mainly involved the boys getting muddy and wet and trying to push, while us girls stood around pretending to be supportive but basically just being entertained and taking photos!
Back to Bogota the next day, and we stopped at the town of Raquira on the way, where they are very big on colourful pottery. It´s a small town, but very pretty and peaceful, so we just wandered a bit and did a few bits of souvenir shopping. Then we continued on to Ziparquira, to see the Cathedral carved into the salt mines deep in the mountains. I´d read a little bit about this and seen photos but it was much much bigger than I expected, and contained lots of connecting tunnels and side caves leading up to the main altar. It was also a lot
darker than I expected from the photos I´d seen, definitely a challenge on the photography side of things!
The next day was our last flight in Colombia, which got us to the border town of Ipiales. We expected to meet a Tucan truck and driver at the airport but there was no big yellow truck to be seen..... our guide Truman sorted out a convoy of taxis for us, plus an escort from one the guys at the airport (army or police, I´m not sure, but this guy was posing so much at one point he went to open the car door and missed the handle because he was looking at us in the car behind!!). While we were getting our stamps at the border a shady looking character in a hooded jacket came up and asked one of the guys if they were with Tucan - it turned out to be our new driver James! Apparently it had been too much hassle to get the truck across the border, so James just waited for us to get to the border. He had the truck with him - Rosita again, who we had last seen in Rio. Bought a
few bits and bobs at the border, very strange to be using US dollars, which is the official currency for Ecuador. Strange in 2 ways - one that it is a currency we all know the value of without really having to think about it, and secondly very nice not to have lots of zeros on the end of even the smallest amount, as we had in Venezuela and Colombia, both of which were around 4,000 to the pound. We then had a bit of a drive to Otavalo, and I noticed along the way that the people were immediately looking just like the Andean populations of Peru and Boliva , quite different from the Colombians - I´d expected the change to be more gradual as we went from the border further into Ecuador but it was really quite marked.
Otavalo is famous for its Saturday markets, and luckily this was the day we were there! We started off with the animal markets, where everyone was buying and selling pigs, cows, sheep etc... it was a hive of activity, and we actually turned up near the end! Lots of people wearing the traditional dress which was interesting for us.
Next we went to the food markets - passing through an impressive array of tasty looking fruit, veg and allsorts of other foods - all smelling fantastic! Now it was time for the main markets, and some serious shopping. I started off well, but after a couple of hours everything was starting to look the same and I couldn´t face anymore. I bought enough though I reckon, although nothing like as much as some people in the group, or in some cases, not as strange as the things that some people bought..!
The next day we drove into Quito, for some people on the tour, back where they started! (they did the full circuit around South America). It´s pretty high up in the mountains (2,800m) so the view as we drove in from the mountains was impressive. We only had a day and a half here, but I managed a general wander in the direciton of the old town (but got distracted by more shopping opportunities at markets in the park along the way!). In the evening we had our final group meal at a Mongolian Grill, where you choose your ingredients from a massive selection of veggies, meat,
fish and sauces, and then then they cook it up for you. Then a few of us went dancing, fuelled by too many Cuba Libras..... I believe a good time was had by all!!
And so the Tucan tour ended, as it had been for much of the way, in a slightly tipsy state...... but definitely good fun! For some people this was the end of their trip and it was time to head back to Blighty, Oz or wherever... however some of us were lucky enough to have further travel plans.... in my case to Mexico...
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