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otavalo market
market day in otovalo Well we arrived safely into South America. Arriving at Quito airport at around midnight last night was bizzare - there were crouds of locals waiting for their relatives. They really welcome friends and family back to Ecuador - even if the absence is only a week. A bit different than our - oh well just get a cab culture...
We got safely to hour hostel and its not bad. Safe, clean, cheap.
Today we had a great day. One of Heather´s colleagues lived in Ecuador and a friend of hers took us out to the market town of Otavalo for the day. Driving through the Andes was amazing. Some of the moutains are almost desert like and others are covered in lush equatorial forrests. The market is the local market run by the indiginous people who are interesting in appearance. The women are very short - less than 5 feet tall and traditionally dressed with braided hair.
After watching the end of the england vs portugal game and the demise of the english (shame...!)...we then headed to a volcano crater. The crater had imploded and has a lake in it. It was beautiful and we had some local food
otavalo market
AND THE RUGS... while up there.
It´s Heather now! As I read Shelagh´s entry I notice she´s used the word ¨¨safe¨3 times - can you tell what´s on our minds! Oh, she just told me that´s a subtle way of telling our parents we´re okay. The day was fantastic. It was great to have someone from here show us around, answer our questions and get us better prices in the market! Shelagh is also exagerating the height of the indiginous women...they´re less than 4 feet tall. I´m a freaking big blond giant here.
We were both exhausted from getting up early to get our flight friday and then getting in late friday and getting up early today. Add to that the fact that I didn´t eat supper last night (long story but let´s just say Continental Airlines isn´t too worried about your food allergies) and we didn´t eat breakfast this morning, it had the potential to be a long day. Luckily going without food doesn´t bother me and I was able to keep Shelagh under control : )
I think I could be south american if it´s based on driving style. There certainly is a go as fast as you can until you can´t anymore then slam on the breaks mentality here. Shelagh expressed some concern as we were headed down a twisting mountain road and passed an SUV...that was passing a truck. Did I mention there is actually just one lane going each way. I thought it was fantastic.
Well, it´s off to bed for us. the idea of getting more than 4.5 hours sleep tonight is terribly exciting. Off to the equator tomorrow. Shelagh has been giddy with excitement about the experiments she´s going to do with water going down the drain. Ah, scientists, aren´t they fun people.
Shelagh and Heather
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derek
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will be following closely.xx