Day 5: Milton & the Hilton

On Friday we decided to venture further from Quito to the northern market town of Otavalo, whose Saturday markets are famous in this part of the world. We set forth in an intercity bus on a two and a half hour journey. The deep canyons and volcanic peaks were spectacular but Sarah's trip was adversely affected by one of the Saw movie sequels played loud and on repeat!

We settled in to the quaint village and headed off to the Condor Park, a sanctuary for predatory birds. The taxi ride with an illiterate driver and a dodgy clutch was eventful in itself! Highlights of the park were seeing condor close up and a flight demonstration.

Day 5 we got up early to get to the Otavalo markets! The whole town becomes a market on a Saturday, with animal (bit smelly and a little cruel), food, textile and main markets, kilometers of markets taking up the streets! After trying some new foods (we'll see how that goes!!) and being completely marketed out, we headed back to Quito on the long bus ride home.

We are now settled in at the Hilton, ready for our Galapagos tour in the morning!! So if we don't blog for ten days, there's no wifi on the boat!

Sam Fact Day 5: the Andean condor has the largest wingspan of all the birds of prey, and is second only to the Albatross.

Next post will contain Galapagos animals!!

Xoxo

Day 3: The Middle of the World

We aren't going to be able to keep up the posting at this rate, but we have good wifi at the moment, so time for another update!

Today we ventured further out of Quito on the bus to Pululahua crater, one of the particularly large craters of the many volcanoes around Quito. So large, that there is a farming village inside the crater! It was pretty spectacular, and well worth the climb in the heat!

Then we stopped at Mitad del Mundo, the equator! We had to get the typical tourist photos standing on the line. There is a monument marking where the French team first calculated the equator to be, and then another tourist centre 300m up the road where the equator was later measured to be by military GPS. Was definitely worth negotiating the buses, a hot and sticky but pretty cool day. The Spanish is improving daily too!

We forgot to add yesterday's 'Sam Fact', but here is Sam Fact for Day 3: while we were at the crater, we saw Cayambe, the only snow-capped mountain on the equator!

Hasta luego (see you later!)

Day 2: Curious Quito

Hola! We made it safe and sound to Quito after three flights and 24 hours!! On Day 1 we were picked up from the airport by the colonial house (our hostel) and went straight to bed! There is not much English spoken up here so we are learning fast!! Sarah is also very tall for an Ecuatorian, so you can imagine the looks Sam is getting!!

We spent Day 2 getting our bearings around Quito, walking around the old town, where the photos were taken, and then all the way to the new town!

Highlight for Sam was climbing the basilica tower, Sarah decided it did not meet OSH standards and chickened out!!

The decor is exactly what we imagined, very decorated (note toilet seat) and it is very hard to tell what places are from the street, there are no shop frontages, just doorways on the footpath.

Getting really excited about the Galapagos now, only three days to go!!