After we lost a day of our Quito schedule we re-evaluated and decided to stay another 2 nights in Quito and take the bus to Otavalo to see the market on Saturday. We enquired with our host regarding the bus and he suggest the we hire a driver who would take us to a few other locations on the way to Otavalo. This would cost $100 for the four of us. Sounds good, we booked it. These are the places we will visit today.
Paul our driver arrives at 8am to pick us up and we are off. Our first stop is “Mitad del Mundo de Cayambe” which translates to “Half the World of Cayambe”. There are many attractions along the equator for people to see the angle of the sun at different times of day and of different seasons. This one, the Quitsato Solar Clock is a cultural-tourist site located in the Middle of the World, near Cayambe City. It is run by a non profit society that is trying to change how we look at the earth. They want to change from a north/south orientation to and east west orientation. They sell inflatable globes with this new way of looking at our earth. It was here that I found my first Ecuardorian Geocache.
Our next stop was at Laguna San Pablo. This is a beautiful lake with views of the the Imbabura volcano across the lake and is only 5 minutes from Otavalo. The day is a bit cloudy so the volcano is not as imposing as it can be on a sunny day.
From here we head to Cascadas de Peguche. This is a national park with a waterfall and rushing river. As we arrive and leave the parking lot we are swarmed by small brownish flies. I am the only one not wearing long pants and my insect repellent is still in the cab. I beckon to Paul to come back so that I can get my pack out of the the trunk. I managed to apply the repellent, but not before these little flies feasted on my legs. Multiple bites. Itchy bites. Leading up to the park is a street with food and craft vendors. The butcher in the first photo is taking the skin from this pig in long strips. They are selling pig skin ceveche on the street. Not appealing in the least.
Stop #4 is Laguna de Cuicocha. This is known as Kuykucha, “lake of guinea pigs” or Kuychikucha, “rainbow lake”. It is a 3km caldera or crater lake at the foot of Cotacachi Volcano. There are people lined up for boat rides around 2 islands in the lake. Also there is a trail that circles the lake. This takes 4-6 hours to complete. It starts and ends at 3,120 m (10,184 ft) and reaches the highest elevation at 3,500m (11,483 ft) for an elevation gain of 400 m.
From here we head back to Otavalo to see the famous market there. We were originally intending to stay in this town for 2 nights. Paul finds a primo parking spot and we head out to explore the market. Very shortly after that we find a hat vendor. On our walking tour of Quito we were told the story of the Panama Hat. Apparently when Teddy Roosevelt was in Panama while the canal was being built he was presented with a hat. He thanked the people for this “Panama Hat” when the hat was actually presented by the people of Ecuador. We see the hats and the lady was very persuasive and they haggled her down from $23 each to $21. 🙂 This is a very very busy place and I think we all agree that we are relieved that we are not spending 2 nights here.
We have discovered that this week (or maybe two) is Carnival in Ecuador. What this means is that young people and sometimes older people throw eggs, flour and anything in the fridge according to Lucas our walking tour guilde, at each other. They also use water guns and balloons, and what to us looks like powdered paint. Most often they have cans of spray foam. These cans range from your regular shaving cream size to ones that are four times that size. We see young people everywhere we have been covered in all of the above. We have even been sprayed with the foam and sometimes water, but just a little bit so far. 🙂 We try to stay clear.
