Hello Everyone,

From Quito we caught the two hour bus ride (our fourth one!) down and north to a popular textile producing town called Otavalo. Indiginas and the like flock from all over to sell their wares. Definitely the most money we have and will spend in one day by a long shot. But still, it wasn´t your ¨gap¨price tags or merchandise for that matter. We ¨enjoyed¨ a lunch that the woman called ¨papas fritas con...¨, what sounded like ¨Sangre¨...blood, which upon asking I believe came from a cow?

Yesterday we hiked in the rain to a village 3km north of Otavalo called Peguche. Because we hoofed it instead of a taxi, we got to experience the extereme differences between our life and theirs. The whole way was lined with cinder-block homes and dirt roads in disrepair (and lots of dogs!). We stood out quite a bit in our ¨gringo gear¨, but everyone was nice and gave smiles as well as a few kids calling out ¨hello¨practicing their english we supposed. Past the village we walked up a pretty dirt track lined by cloud forest vegetation to Peguche Falls and then returned to town for dinner.

The market today was amazing. Here we saw the most amount of gringos so far. Tomorrow we are headed to Ibarra, another 40 minutes north of here. after that we´re not sure, but we´ll probably be in Ibarra for at least a couple of days figuring that out. We might go for a hike up Volcan Imbabura while we´re there as it is just outside of town, just past a village called La Esperanza. Till next time...