Today the group is packing up the bags from our brief stay in the market town of Otavalo. We took at 4 am bus from Baños on Sunday moring, which actually went quite smoothly. We arrived at Otavalo in the morning, and Jackie fearlessly lead us to our hostel. The day was spent shopping, easting, and relaxing in hammocks. I think almost everyone bought something here, one of the best markets in South America. I helped Phil pick out a gift for his mom, Joseph got some earings he’s really excited about, and I think all the girls now own some sort of sweater made from alpaca. Cecelia found a roasted pig on the street (killed the night before) for some of the group to have for lunch. We all ate pizza together for dinner. They were giant slices with most of the girls eating just one, but Josh easily ate four 🙂
Yesterday was our free day to find something fun to do on a fairly low budget. We read about an Ecological Refuge that sounded cool, and knew we could take a bus part of the way, so we headed over to the bus station after lunch. It took a little while to figure out what bus, but eventually we hopped on one hoping it would bring us somewhere cool. It was a tad unplanned, I overheard Ryan asking a 14 year old how far away the town was. We get off and start searching for a ride to the actual park, and find a friendly man with a pick up who thinks that he knows what we’re talking about who offers to take us there. So we pile in and hope that he’s going to bring us to the right place. It was a fun ride, Brian’s hat flew off but he was able to retrieve it with out getting hit by a taxi. We arrived at the right place and had a wonderful time. We wished we could have spent more time there, so it was a lesson to us to plan ahead instead of the morning of!
Ryan, Cheridyn, Phil, Josh, Austin, Ella and I went on the hike on top of the mountains that surronded a beautiful lake while the rest of the group went down to the water and took a boat ride (well, more like raft!). It was a 4 hour trail, so we didn’t have time to go all the way around, but Ella had the great idea of sitting and journaling in the gorgeous scenery. The boys went a little farther, and walking back Austin painted his entire hands blood red with berries. I enjoyed just taking the hike slow, absorbing the beauty and time with my group members.
Now we are leaving for a small town called which I believe is called Pucara. It sounds like it’s truly in el campo, so you probably will not be hearing from any of us for at least a week. It should l be a good time though, coffee farm, Spanish lessons, hikes in the cloud forest, and possibly more ziplining! Here are a few pictures…
In the truck! Emily needed to buy some new jewelry for her nose piercing, isn’t it pretty?
