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Published: September 1st 2007
Having made the only bus of the day by seconds, it took over 4 hours to get to the small village we were planning on staying in. The small bus had over 50 people on it, and due to being late, I had to stand up most of the way which was interesting on some of the roughest roads we have seen since we´ve been here. The scenery was stunning, with the highlights of the journey being 3 brothers getting off the bus with loads of shopping, having been to town on their own (the oldest must have been 7 !!), and the stop we made in at a local hardware shop, where one of the passengers loaded on lots of 10 metre lengths of steel rods you see on construction sites. It was also pretty amusing when there was a shout from the back for a plastic bag, which another boy proceeded to be sick into, before it was thrown out of the window.
We stayed in a really nice small hostel where we quickly got to know the other guests. After an early night due to my inevitable cold following the rafting, we went hiking with 4 Dutch people (On the way to start the hike we saw an incredible photo opportunity that all of us unfortunately missed. A little boy of about 3 on his own riding a small pig backwards with a massive smile). As has been the story of our trip, the hike turned out to be a little more difficult than expected, not made easy by a mixture of poor signs and bad navigation by all 6 of us. The hike takes in some unbelivably amazing scenery including a volcano crater at 4,000 metres containing a lake that looks just like something off James Bond (Moonraker I think).
The worst part by far was seeing a couple of very angry dogs head in our direction from about a mile away barking loudly. At this point we had taken another wrong turn and were stuck on a cliff edge deciding how we should get back to the main path. Being so far away, we were certain that the dogs would stop, but unfortunately we were wrong. Without anywhere to run, we had no choice but to stand our ground, bark loudly back at them and throw lots of rocks in their direction. After a 3 minute stand-off, with the dogs getting as close as 3 metres away, some girls from local farm called the dogs away. To complete the 15km walk without any more wrong turns, we employed the services of a 10 year old local boy we met on the trail, who agreed to guide us for 6 dollars and a bottle of Coca-Cola. He took us to an obvious village from which it was impossible to get lost (we did actually take another wriong turn after he left us) by which time we were all totally knackered and my face was on fire with sunburn as i forgot to take a hat.
The next morning we got up early to ride to a famous local indigenous market about 3 hours away. Without local transport, this meant paying the hostel owner 90 dollars to squeeze 8 people and backpacks into his pick-up truck . After a freezing cold ride in the back, the market was massive, with 8 different squares in the town selling different things (clothes, fruit & veg, car radios, animals etc) By far the best was the animal market, with loads of farm animals for sale causing a lot of noise and massive distress as buyers tried to get them onto all sorts of crazy transport. Lots of people were walking there animals home, so the road was full of people dragging cows, sheep, llamas and pigs in the general direction of home. On our bus ride to Quito after the market we actually had some live sheep on the roofrack of the bus with there feet tied together so they couldn´t jump !!
We are in Quito now and after a massive night out last night finishing at a local break-dancing club, we have had the worst hangover today in preparation for our 24 hour trip back to London tomorrow.
Probably one more blog to come, when we have hopefully arrived back safely and started the job of moving back into our house.
Adios Amigos
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Joni
non-member comment
Is it hometime already!!!
Wow, even for us reading here it seems like you have been gone two weeks, the time must have flown for you! Please could you bring us a couple of sheep and a pig back from the market. speak to you in London. Safe journey.