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Published: August 12th 2007
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Having left the jungle early in the morning, we arrived back in Quito with most of the day still to spare. However Suzz was feeling pretty tired from the tour so decided she'd spend the day snoozing by the pool at our final hotel - Hotel Quito.
Unfortunately the planned day of relaxation was "slightly" spoilt when it was discovered that the hotel lies directly under the flight path of the airport and attemping to have a lazy day lying by the pool also involved frequent interruptions from planes roaring overhead, landing gear down, coming into Quito International Airport!! Fortunately there's a curfew from about 10.30pm to 6.30am so we weren't kept awake all night long too. The hotel itself was lovely, with a fantastic bar & restaurant on the top floor with stunning views over the city - we spent the evening dining here.
The following day we headed into the town to take full advantage of our last chance to shop and to buy tickets for our final excursion the next day - to the largest indigenous market in South America - Otavalo.
It's about an hours drive out of the city so we were picked-up
from the hotel at a very reasonable 9am and headed off in our fancy-pants people carrier with leather seats and only 3 other fellow tourists! What luxury! En route we stopped briefly at yet another equatorial landmark where the locals were busy celebrating one of the equinoxes (we think). We only stopped for a short while, not long enough to start making enquiries in our still limited Spanish. Anyway, we left the party in full swing and headed on to Otavalo.
The locals in Otavalo are very distinctive as they wear a particular type of outfit. The women wear white blouses with black sashes and skirts. Whilst the men dress in traditional white pants, dark ponchos and felt hats and have their hair braided in long pigtails. Amongst the Otavalo men it is considered disrespectful not to have a pigtail and it's not unheard of for sons to be disowned for having their hair cut.
Anyway, having finally arrived in Otavalo the guide dropped us all off at the Town Square and reminded us to keep our bags safe and not to get lost. With only a little over an hour we headed straight for the hussle and
Celebrating at the Equator
All the kids were in traditional dress bussle and some hardcore bartering!
As we walked through the market every trader invited us to look at their wares but there is a limit to how polite you can be, so after stopping at the first few we realised that if we were to have any chance of seeing the rest of the market we had to keep moving! Obviously as Brits we apologised for not stopping!
As we walked deeper and deeper into the market the number of people increased to such an extent that in some places we were unable to move and with no shelter from the sun it wasn't long before we started to feel the heat.
With virtually everything available from second hand shoes to jewelery we made a few essential purchases - gifts for the family - and retreated, exhausted, to the people carrier.
Leaving Otavalo behind we drove a short distance to a local waterfall, where the guide briefly explained that shamen bathe in the falls to purify themselves before performing rituals. Interesting!
We both decided to trek the short distance to the top of the falls but only Av made it (as Suzz started suffering from
the altitude yet again). At the top you can see that the river eminates from a deep cave and there's also a great view of the water racing over the edge and crashing into the pool below on its journey through the forest.
After our brief stop at the falls we headed to a small town for lunch and the opportunity to buy more leather goods, if desired! All shopped-out, no one did, well, apart from Suzz!
It was then time to start heading back to Quito, with one final stop at Cuicocha lake. This lake is formed in the crater of a volcano and has two islets formed from the remnants of lava domes. Having first taken a short walk to a viewing point to see the lake, we all decided we'd like a closer look and opted for the small cruise around the twin islets in the center of the lake.
We all donned lifevests and were then crammed on to a little boat, designed to take about 15 passengers but instead taking well over 20, and headed out to the islets. With the boat sitting so low, water gushed over the sides as we
"sped" across the lake. We took a tour around the first islet, and were told that the islet was once inhabited by guineapigs (although not any more - we can only guess what happened to them!) before arriving in an area in between the islets where we stopped briefly to see evidence of the volcanic activity - gas bubbles released from deeper in the crater rising to the surface - just like a jacuzzi!
Returning to dry land we enjoyed a nice cup of hot cinnamon tea, courtesy of the boat trip company, before finally making our way home - Hotel Quito!
With our trip rapidly drawing to a close our final morning was spent packing all of our new purchases into the suitcase we'd bought specially, before setting off on our last trip in a South American taxi, to the airport, and our flight home. Boo Hoo!
We've had an amazing time and seen so many fantastic things on our travels. From the partying Brazilians and steak chomping Argentinians to the friendly, smiling people of Bolivia and beyond it has truly been an experience of a lifetime. How lucky are we?!?!
Adios South America!!!!!
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