My last handful of days here...

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Hi all! I´m here in Baños but only for a day. I didn´t do the train ride, really bummed out about that one. Turns out that there was a landslide or something that took out the tracks outside of Riobamba. Now I have to tell you, that simple statement took me about a minute or more of questions and answers to understand, really need to have a more conversational grasp of spanish should I come back. I could have backtracked on the bus a few hours south to another stop and take it from there but I was told (at least I think I was told) that it´s hard to get on the roof at that other town because tour buses drop off passengers for that purpose. I´d be able to get on the train but inside and likely not on the roof. Oh well, onwards and upwards.

I then took off for Otavalo, cute little town which boasts the largest weekly market in all of South America. I can personally confirm that, it was huge! I arrived the day before and the daily market was in their central square and it was fairly decent. I hiked around for the rest of the day, waiting for this ´big market´ day. Got to see an Andean Condor up close, well, inside this enclosure in a bird sanctuary. Truly a magnificant bird, the wing span was huge. This place is a rescue for birds of prey so there were also falcons, owls and even a bald eagle; easy to understand why it´s the symbol of the US, great animal, too.

Well, I got up the next morning, expecting the market to be a bit bigger, never expecting it to cover blocks and blocks of streets. It was huge and you name it, it was likely sold there. I walked past the food area where they were roasting a pig and hacking pieces off for lunch, now that´s fresh... It was unbelievable, it just seemed to go on forever. Later on in the early evening, they had a fiesta. I´d made friends with a bank security guard the day before so I met up with him later for street dancing. I stood there and had a conversation with this man, his name is Miguel, as he´s holding a machine gun at his post outside the bank. Who better to wander around the fiesta with than someone who knows how to use a machine gun, right? It was so much fun.

Now I´m in Baños, the town at the base of an active volcano. There are thermal baths here with healing minerals and I´m off to soak in them right now. One of the baths is apparently 48 degrees celcius, not sure if scalding is my idea of a good time. There is another one that is mid-range then a cool one, I think I´ll opt for the mid-range but of course, I will try to hot one, just cuz I´m here... After this place, I´ll be off to Quito to squeeze in my last bit of this amazing country. Truly, highly recommend both Peru and Ecuador to anyone, beyond my expectations.

If I can, I´ll try and update before I come home, otherwise, I´ll see all you lovlies when I get home. Miss you all.

Love
Cheryl

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