Baños: Looking good

i wasnt even hoping for much when i came to this place, really just wanted to get out of quito. but now im begginning to realise why every backpacker responded with a grin from ear to ear when i mentioned ..

...Baños!

This is the view form the porch of my hostel room...though guess im not the only one, this waterfall towers over the entire town.

hostel "la petit auberge" like a little jungle here, very peaceful. i think i disturbed a couple of humming birds when i went out onto the porch.

Baños is at 1800 metres above sea level, 1000 metres lower and considerably warmer than quito.

can rent these for $8 per hour, $45 per day.. !

food! didnt eat here myself,there are plenty of options, but took this cos its a very common sight around ecuador. whoops! on closer nispection you can see that these are no chickens.. its Cuy.. (guinea pig)

ive only been here 3 hours so i think there will be many more fotos to come..

Cotopaxi

Cotopaxi

im just back from another hostel called "secred garden" which is near Cotopaxi national park.the hostel is situated at the foot of a hill with a vast view of the surrounding mountains , and directly facing the volcano of Cotopaxi. the foto above is the view from the front door of the hostel.


Cotapaxi is the second highest volcano in ecuador. there is a refuge after a 500 metre uphill trek.
from the hostel they organize two treks, then one day trek as far as the glacier (just 200m after the refuge), and a two day trek to the summet which involves an overnight stay in the refuge.


another option is a two metre trek to the hammocks outside the front door, only equipment needed for this is a good book (though a wooly poncho and hat is an added bonus)


you have free use of the mountain bikes which is great, but tough going..


made significantly easier by this orange soda which is 100% vitamin C ????
who says they dont have good food in ecuador?


this is part of the road leading up to the hostel, nothing less than a 4 x 4 vehicle for several kilometres. i had the luxury of getting a 40 minute lift in the back of a pickup truck over this terrain. my "trasero" will never forgive me

actually a few nasty bulls around, they are breeding them for fighting, and some make their way onto the road.

as there is no electricity around, things start to look like this after dark (6.30pm). out with the cards..

off to "secret gardeen" Cotapaxi today... its a hostel at the foot of Cotapaxi mountain.

its competely self sufficient, no electricity or running water .... or internet..so i braught some painkillers hehe just messing...


tune in on thursday for fotos..

bye

im in a ciber cafe in Quito..

theres musical murder going outside the door...! i was enjoying some nice guitar music coming from somewhere on the sunny street outside and the music shop beside us seems to have decided to compete with it, with the worst racket of cheesy reggaeton music i have ever been subjected to. arrgh.... gimme a machinegun pleasee..

funnily enough, i have noticed a connection between the rythm of traditional music of Ecuador, and the beat of regaeton. hmm...

had breakfast. over hearing some amusing conversations, backpackers are funny. they say thing like "oh you must go there" followed by "its very touristy though" hehe.. are you not a tourist?
(i do it mysellf , hehe.. i think each one likes to think he is not a tourist)

Otavalo

some roads are a free-for-all for bikes, once a month in quito.

Sunday Art Exhibition in Parque Ejido, Quito

A building, somewhere outside Quito, taken yesterday.

Otavalo: Market

OTAVALO

They say this is the biggest market in South America and im definitly not going to argue.
its a labyrinth of handcrafted color and beauty to lose yourself in for hours... and i did. literally got lost hehehe. the market runs every day but on saturday it covers the entire town of otavalo. The Otavaleños themselves are a gentle people, very proud of their culture , language , way of dress and way of life. not to metion very creative, entrepreneurial and hard working and sometimes chancers hehehe , this place is more than i ever expected.









this is the kind of clothes you see on all of the Otavaleña women.

made her laugh, camera was on wrong setting though, second smile was still nice .

couldnt refuse this girl, i baught two bracelets even though i have zero use for such things.

ops, didnt notice freak in the background.

bird massacre




baby finally looked at camera hehe.


Its perfectly normal to go around with a jumper on your head in otavalo.






Cuicocha .. "lake of god"

Otavleña woman demosntrates how they make the fabrics.

Preparing the wool.

Various natural stuff is used for the color, such as plants,fruit and other things i have no idea what they are.


then its all woven together on these machines which are operated mechanically by your feet or hands. this is normally the mans job but this woman learned it as she had no brothers. her children are now learning it bit by bit. no templates are used, its all done straight from the imagination of the artist themselves.

Otavaleño family playing traditional music of Ecuador,Peru & Bolivia.