Otavalo - Day 21 We made it to Otavalo today! We took the taxi from Mindo back up to the highway. It was a nice sunny day, no rain. We took the San Perdito bus to the Carcalen bus station in Quito ($2.50 each). The trip took about two hours. A man came on the bus selling ice cream. He had a soft cooler bag, but don't see how it didn't melt. But I hear that some of the treats that look like ice cream are really frosting. The bus did some S and hairpin curves as we went up in elevation to Quito. Our problem was that we wanted to go from Mindo to Otavalo. There is no bus that goes that way. You have to go back to Quito and start over again. Another ... read more

Mindo - Day 19 After a peaceful breakfast of fruit and rolls on the back porch, we took off to see butterflies. The butterfly farm (Mariposia) is about a 40 minute walk from the hostel. Our walk took us along the Mindo river. Many buses had pulled into the accesses, bringing tubers to the river. The river flowed along pretty rapidly, going over some large rocks. The tubers were all wearing helmets We found the butterfly farm very interesting. The first part of the tour explained the stages of the butterfly from egg to caterpillar to pupae to butterfly. They actually grew the butterflies here, so they had them in every stage. There were 25 different kinds of butterflies on the farm. There are 300 kinds in Mindo, and 4000 kinds in all of Ecuador. The ... read more

Quito - Day 17 This was our last morning in Banos. We really enjoyed our visit here. The first morning at the hostel we didn't realize that breakfast was included, so we made our own. The next two mornings we were treated to rolls, yogurt, fresh fruit, granola and coffee. The staff here was very friendly and accommodating. We expected to call a taxi this morning, but the hostel manager drove us to the bus station. Today we headed back to Quito. We got to the bus station earlier than we expected, so got the 9:00am bus. The 3.5 hour ride was very reasonable ($3.50 per person), as is all transportation here. We had reservations far north in Quito, so we would be fairly near the Ofelia bus station. Tomorrow we go to Mindo, and this ... read more

Banos - Day 15 What a beautiful city this is! It is perched on the slope of an active volcano called Tungurahua. It is very clean; the street sweepers are out early. There are several hostels here, as well as spas and hot baths. There are also a few places to rent horses and bikes. Our first stop on today's adventure was a close-up view of the long waterfall visible from town. We could walk up a short distance to a little overlook of the city. From this vantage point, we could see some hot bath pools. The water is heated by the volcano. We next stopped at the bus depot to check on our bus back to Quito in a couple days.The Sugar Cane stalls right across from the bus depot sells melcocha, a chewable ... read more

Cuenca - Day 13 Delicious cherries for breakfast! Walked a few blocks down to the river, which is fairly wide and very clean. A park with an outer track was along the river. Several groups were exercising, and a soccer game was going on. There also appeared to be some sort of graduation ceremony. Right on the edge of the park was Escuela de Marcha, a famous race-walking school that trains Columbian refugee children. Bob is a good tour guide! He next took us by the Museo Landivar. Although it was closed, we could still see the famous ruins where the Canari, Incas, and Spanish civilizations built over one another. We walked to Plaza San Blas. There were marching bands in the area, and many decorations for Christmas. Today must be some sort of holiday. There ... read more