Advertisement
Ipiales
Our Love ShackDay 219 Thursday 17
th May
Awoken at 1.30am by a car pulling into the carpark below, they were continually opening and slamming closed the doors and beeped the doors opened and closed for about 5 minutes then it went quiet. A few minutes later they were in the hallway outside our door having a conversation, the problem is there are open slat vents above the doors so the sound proofing is non-existent. I know over the years there has been criticism of the Sydney Opera House, we have the answer for the sound engineers come to the Hotel Metropol they have the perfect acoustics you can hear every sound from every room just like it is inches from you. This leads me to the next events, we had not realised that we got a show thrown into the price of the room there was no visuals (thank goodness) but there was a lot of moaning and groaning, we were not sure if we should have made comments or scored the action that was going on across the hallway. Without exaggeration when someone peed in the toilet within a few room radius we could hear it so clearly that
a few times we thought there was someone in our bathroom.
So as you can gather there was not much sleep happening at the Love Hotel, so when the alarm went off at 6.30am although tired we were definitely ready to move on. We packed, paid the bill and were out the door straight into a waiting taxi at 8.00am to the border with Ecuador. The crossing is easy we were stamped out of Colombia which was very sad as we have both loved Colombia and the people it has been an unexpected highlight of our trip. We crossed the bridge to the Ecuador border it was now raining quite heavy so we only quickly stopped for photos on the bridge and ran into the control office where we were stamped back into Ecuador. Again there was a taxi outside which we jumped into for the trip to Tulcan and the Bus terminal, as we were trying to get our bags out there were men yelling “Quito” at us. We ignored them while we sorted out our bags and paid the taxi driver, then we said “no Otavalo” and they pointed to a decent looking bus which they proudly
Otavalo
Town Hall said had a toilet all for $3.00 each. Note Ecuador currency is US dollar so at the moment this is about the same as the Australian Dollar which we have noticed has recently dived. Our bags were thrown into the luggage compartment and we found two seats together and within 10 minutes we were underway.
As we took off down the road we had 3 hawkers on the bus the first selling chocolate bars and his brother singing a rap song which was novel but I am glad that it did not last the whole trip. When the third hawker started her pitch selling marshmallows the bus pulled over, it was a police checkpoint and they were going through bags in the storage compartment. Scott went out to claim our bags and check they made it back on board while I stayed with the day packs and seats, then a policeman came through checking passports and telling some people to get off. When it was my turn I was standing in between the seats trying to see Scott, but the floor was very slippery because it was wet so I am not sure if he thought I was suspect
Otavalo
Yummy Lunch because I could not stand up properly but I was told to get off the bus. They only went through our day packs and said everything was OK we could get back on the bus, so soon everyone was back on board and we were underway. About an hour later the bus was stopped again and the police came on board it seemed that they were pulling the same people off so when he came to Scott and me and may I say gave Scott a dirty look up and down we were ready to hop off again, but he must of decided we were no threat so we stayed on. The rest of the trip was uneventful and we were dropped off on the highway outside Otavalo with our bags, the bus goes through to Quito so it does not go into town. A man with a ute waved at us it was the only collectivo there and he took us to our hostel in town for $1.00, we have been so lucky with our connections all through Colombia and now Ecuador.
The hostel is located two blocks from the main square and is in an old colonial
Otavalo
Iglesia San Luis house with wooden floors big windows and thankfully a toilet seat. We dropped our bags and went for a walk around the town we found a café overlooking the market to have lunch, it had great views of the activity in the everyday market. Later in the afternoon we went back to the hostel to sort our stuff out and have a nice shower, I was the first one in and it was steaming hot so I put the shampoo in my hair and then it went freezing cold. There I was standing out of the waters reach dripping with shampoo in my hair screaming at Scott “HELP”, we waited a while trying to turn it on and off but there was no hot water. Damn it I was shivering and after about 10 minutes there was enough hot water for me to quickly wash the soap out, and Scott jumped in to have a cold shower. I hope it was just a problem tonight and we get hot water tomorrow or we are moving.
The temperature outside is now colder as the sun has gone down so I rugged up and we go out for dinner at a
Otavalo
Animal Markets rooftop Mexican restaurant that was playing reggae music, it was a reasonable feed and a beautiful outlook.
Day 220 Friday 18
th May
The hostel is lucky or maybe we are as there is continuous hot water this morning so we both could have a good shower. The night before we had noticed a small café with two stools at a counter and a real coffee machine so that is where we went for breakfast. It is a small space but it was the best breakfast of bagels with ham and cheese and good coffee, yes this is Shelley saying this. Our next major task today is the post office to see if we can send some stuff home, the lady at the counter spoke English so it made it so easy to work it out. She told us that 5kg would be $82.00 to Australia and that we could get a box from the local supermarket, we are so excited that we can finally get some stuff out of our backpacks. We got a box and dropped in back at our room and then went to look around the everyday markets to get an
Otavalo
This little piggy went to Market idea of what goodies are for sale here, tomorrow is the big market day so I now can buy some more things. The markets are on the pricey side so I will have to bargain tomorrow when buying things, we did a bit of practicing today and picked up a few items.
We could not wait so we went back to our room to pull everything out of our backpacks and put into the box which is approximately 40x40x50cm and I wanted to know how much more I could buy to fill it. We dragged all the stuff we had accumulated in the past seven months which was mainly t-shirts and our Rio Carnival cushions plus other souvenirs and the box was just about full we could not believe how much extra we have been carrying. We think it will cost us a lot more which we will find out on Monday when we take it back to the Post Office.
For lunch I had spotted a hole in the wall place that was selling in a plastic dish a mixture of beans, corn, tomato, onion, lime juice, sauce and a few banana chips on top that look
Otavalo
Everyday Markets yummy. By the time we arrived at 1.00pm there was a big line up of school kids so we walked around and went back later and for $1.50 for two we had a tasty treat and will definitely be getting this again. We walked around and found the local food markets where there were lots of mystery meats on sale as well as fish, fruit & veg and other random items.
Early in the evening we went walking again it was a lot colder tonight so we stopped at the bar overlooking the markets for their Mojito special night and also had a pasta dinner there.
Day 221 Saturday 19
th May
We were up at 5.30am to visit the Animal Markets which is opened from 6.00am to 10.00am it is in a paddock near the main highway only a 15 minute walk from the hostel. It is a where the local come to buy and sell all sorts of animals from the farm like cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens and guinea pigs to pets like dogs (I am pretty sure they do not eat dogs but the guinea pigs are on the menu).
Otavalo
Street Markets It is very shambolic with utes and trucks reversing, animals being lead around and occasionally trying to mount or fight with each other and people in deep discussion. We both kind of felt underdressed as we were the only ones not carrying a chicken or with a pig on a rope, almost bought a rooster so we could fit in. It is interesting for a quick look but unless you are looking for some good laying hens to take home it is a quick walk around.
We got back to the little café on Plaza Bolivar at 7.00am which is the opening time and yes he was open but everything was not up and running so we walked around watching the big Saturday craft markets set up. At 7.20am the café was ready and we got another great breakfast and while eating met an American lady Christine that had moved here to live a year ago. We said goodbye and wished each other luck on our adventures and we were now ready to tackle todays buying opportunities. The main street of the town in blocked off and the markets run all the way down it for about six blocks
Otavalo
Street Markets and then around the everyday markets and some of the side streets. A lot of what is on sale can be found in other South American countries but I managed to find some different things to buy, unfortunately the jewellery is not that cheap and they did not budge much on the prices. By 11.30am the rain started to fall to we called it quits and took our goodies back to our room and waited for the rain to ease. By 12.30pm the rain was lighter so we went for the yummy lunch we had yesterday but he was not open, so we ended up at the same café as last night. We kept hoping the rain would stop but no, so we were decadent and went to “Shenandoah pie shop” up the road that has homemade blackberry and lemon meringue pies. The rain finally stopped so we walked around the markets again, but by now the stalls were starting to pack up and we resisted buying any more.
Scott packed the box to send home and it is full so we hope that we have no problems mailing it home because I do not want to be carrying
Otavalo
Statue in front of Town Hall it all around for the rest of the trip.
Dinner was at a busy restaurant called Blue Rose where there do a decent pizza which does not have too much cheese on it, the service is slow but the staff are very friendly and the prices good.
Day 222 Sunday 20
th May
The weather is better this morning and we headed to the small café for breakfast where Luis makes a great cup of coffee. As we arrived and grabbed the two stools an American couple also arrived and we started to talk about Ecuador the lady had lived here in the 1950’s and this was the first time she had been back so she had seen a big difference is the town.
At 10.30am we got a taxi up to Parque Condor which is a Dutch owned Foundation that rehabilitates raptors, vultures and owls. We walked around looking at the amazing birds including a beautiful large Harpy Eagle that I am sure knew it the way she was posing. At 11.30am there is an exhibition with some of the birds including Gringo an American Eagle, this was only in Spanish so
Otavalo
Statue in front of Iglesia San Luis there was about 20 of us in the audience that miss out on what was probably very interesting information. The guy doing the demonstrations would come out with one eagle at a time, he would give a talk whilst letting the bird flit around and all the time giving it treats. He would then release the bird over the valley at the rear of the small stadium so you could watch them soar away, it was great to see them actually free and flying around, although one of the eagles did not seem too keen to come back and the show went on while the other keepers kept an eye on his location. After the show we had another look around at the eagles and owls and in particular the massive Andean Condors, which are a really ugly looking bird but are so huge it is hard to believe they can get off the ground. The largest wing span recorded was 3.2 metres (10.5 feet) the largest of any land bird with males weighing 11 to 15 kilos and they can live to a 100 years in captivity. We had seen these Condors in the air in Chile so it
Otavalo
The great cafe was great to see them up close and appreciate how huge they really are.
We left the Parque Condor and decided to walk back to town and along the way got great views of Laguna De San Pablo and Volcan Imbabura in the distance. About 500 metres along the road we came to El Lechero which is a magical tree famous for its healing powers. Scott was hoping to rub his gout toe on its bark but unfortunately it was all fenced off so we can only hope it’s magical powers work from a distance. From here we walked the 4km back to town through farming areas it was an easy walk as it is all downhill, and lucky for us the threatening black clouds didn’t release a torrent on us so we returned to our hotel dry.
We got a pre-dinner drink at Buena Vista and watched the stall holders packing up for the day before going back to Blue Rose for dinner. On the way back to the hostal we noticed a band playing in the Plaza so we bought a hot chocolate from Luis at the café and went over to join in on the
fun. It was about a twenty piece band with 4 saxophones, 3 trombones, 3 drummers etc so the sound was great and got the people dancing.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.111s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 13; qc: 31; dbt: 0.0493s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
brett
non-member comment
the joys of staying in hotels etc. i've been in that situation too many times - nothing worse then hearing someone else shagging especially when it sounds like there right there in bed with you - yuck. paper thin walls, walls that don't meet the ceillings etc - may as well be in a dorm! had a bucks party on either side recently. try earplugs.