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Published: March 1st 2008
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Otavalo Artwork
An example of the art at the market. This was painting was a bout 6 foot by 6 foot. I asked the artist if i could cut a piece off. He refused. If ur trying to find Wally, hes bottom right in a basket Hello all
Its almost over, the Ecuadorian leg of my trip. By the time i post this it will probably be the day of my flight to Mexico, a good 9 hours of flying ahead of me, of which the first two are in the wrong direction with the following two coming back the way i came. For some reason im heading south to Lima and changing there to head north to Mexico City. It doesnt do my carbon footprint any favours but it was cheaper to do it that way apparently.
I cant remember if i mentioned before but i payed for four hours of spanish lessons a day for my remaining two weeks since after returning from the Galapagos in an attempt to cure my tendancy to panic and stare blankly at people when they talk to me in spanish. With all the classes and homework (holiday my arse!) i havnt had time to write another entry to my now critically acclaimed travel diary (ive decided blog is crap word). Here then is my last two weeks condensed into some photos and a few words here and there.
The school. The classes are challenging to say
Some volcano
and a lake. Look how cool the clouds are. the least. Four hours of one on one tuition hurts my head. Hangovers dont help and despite what people have told me arnt cured by diarrohea relief capsules. i tried it this morning and still felt rough as for the whole day. Luckily for me my teacher is really nice and a little mad and when she isnt laughing hysterically at my pronunciation of most words she is helping me lots. We went on a class trip to the Palace where the President lives and it turns out in fact all the teachers are mad or at least on some medication. They were all giggling like school girls for the whole day. We had to present our passports to get in to the palace for security and the main man werent even in. Palace is pretty impressive. Couldnt take photos unless you turned the flash off. With me not able to control this or any function of my camera and with the guards armed with shotguns i havnt got any photos except outside on the balcony.
Otavalo market. Went there last saturday. Didnt buy much just ate pretty much anything available. You can go to fruit stalls, pay a
What the Market actually looks like
I dunno if you can make out the trays with whole pigs on them and the woman dressed up in their finest traditional clobber. Its there trust me couple of dollars and try whatever of the alien fruits are on sale. i think your sposed to buy after trying but i was stuffed and had to move on. Nice paintngs in the market all by local markets but they were all too big to bring back. Afterwards we went to a Volcano and a lake named after the guniea pigs which live wild in the area (more of these little guys later).
Football Match Number 2. Universidad de Liga vs Nacional. Despite the abomination of a spectle, that was played out before me during my previous Ecuador football experience, i agreed to give a what passes for football in this country another go as this was apparently two of the best teams in the country. The result was four goals, two sendings off and a player completely knocked unconcious leading to a 23 man brawl (i think the ref threw a punch at one point) which was only brought to an end by the introduction of riot plice with shields and batons to seperate the teams. This was all somewhat suprising seen as the player was knocked out completely by accident after a collision with his own
Stadia de Liga
This is actually a picture of the riot. The dark looking blobs on the left of the picture are the riot police charging. Unfortuantly the whole incidnet happened at the other end of the ground. keeper with not an opposition player in sight. Still any reason for a fight is a reason good enough and the throwing of hangbags and subsequent police intervention all took place over the poor guys not-moving-much body. I think he was ok in the end. All this took about 5 minutes to sort out but with the refere keen to get on his poilce escorted bike out of that stadium to safety, esspecially after both the sendings off were home players, he added on the standard 1 minute off injury time and made his retreat. All in all not bad entertainment for 3 quid. Went to an Irish pub after to watch Spurs beat Chelsea. Good day.
Guinea Pig. I ate this the other day. See photo. Twas nice. They said its sposed to taste a bit like rabbit. Ive never had rabbit but this could very well be the case. Two guys on the table next to me from the eastern bit of europe ordered the same but cause neither of them spoke any spanish and the only word they recognised was pig, they were a little suprised to say the least to see a couple of claws
Liga Fans
complete with crazy kids climbing the barriers and bored baby whod rather have been watching Spurs. and tiny teeth sticking out of their pork chop. They looked bemused at the waitor and oinked at him with shrugged shoulders. The waitor shook his head and laughed. Fair play to them they ate it anyway.
All the goodybying at the school was done yesterday over a traditional Ecuadorian feast and home made Mohitos (it was 1145 and they were strong as hell but i werent bothered. my spanish is better when im merry. Note the use of merry and not drunk). The meal was prepared by the teachers and consisted of all sorts of vegetable and pulses and some birthday cake. The school has been really great here. i think i have learnt a bit and i will miss everyone of those fruitcake teachers.
Goodbye Quito
Speak to you all in Mexico
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