Hola!

I went back to the Old Town today to visit some of the many churches and museums fun fun!

First stop from the Trole bus was the Plaza Santo Domingo where I started at the Iglesia Santo Domingo. Not sure if I was meant to take photo's so I left pretty quickly when the security guard started following me around and giving me evils. I was just standing in the Square taking pictures when I saw a massive Mary looking down from a little hill so I jumped into a cab and went to the top. The hill is called the Panecillo (little bread loaf) and you can see the whole of Quito from the top. It was even more massive than I thought. The statue itself is a bit scary, why anyone would be arsed to build some huge Mary on the top of a hill I not sure but oh well!

After that I went to the Main Squarewhere the celebrations took place the night before. The Square is surrounded by the Cathedral to the south (nothing too amazing although it does contain the remains of Field Marshall Sucre, think he had something to do with the independence of Quito or something? Next to the Cathedral is the Palacio de Gobierno (Presidents Palace), you're jot allowed in there and it's guarded by some shifty looking guards. To the north of the Square was The first hotel of Quito, which is now the government planning office. There is also the Palacio Arzobispal, which just seemed to be a load of shops and restaurants.

After that I went round the corner of the Cathedral to check out the little church - El Sangrario, nothing too spectacular really.

Then I walked up the hill to the biggest museum in the Old Town, managed to blag student prices without even really trying bonus! I was then herded onto the back of a school tour. Couldn't understand much but their teacher started talking to me, which made all th school kids (15-16yr olds) start giggling and pretending I was his girlfriend or something, quite embarrassing. He started asking me loads of questions about whether I was religious and did I believe in aliens?! This was all in Spanish but I think he had some kind of accident and the doctors said he wouldn't get better then he had some kind of extra terrestrial experience and he was better but no doctors could explain it?! I managed to escape quite soon after that!

Then I went to visit La Compania , which is another church. You're not allowed to take any pictures but the whole church is decorated with several tonnes of gold. It's gold leaf mania - Lawrence what's his face from 'Changing Rooms' would love it! I thin it took over 300 yera to complete ahhh!

After that I'd pretty much had enough of churches so I went to the Plaza San Francisco, had a quick look around and then got the Trole bus back to the New Town.

After my Spanish lesson I took the bus to Otavalo a little market town about three hours north of Quito. I'd heard that on Saturday morning's there is an amazing animal, produce and handicraft market and that the surrounding villages are really pretty. I had to get the bus from the main bus terminal in the Old Town. By the time my Spanish lesson finisheda massive thunderstorm had started. It was absolutely p**sing it down and it was really dark. I was the only one that got on the bus at the bus terminal - it only costs $2 for a bus journey that takes 3 hours! All the buses in Quito stop whenever you flag them down and they have a bus driver plus another bloke that hangs out of the door shouting the buses destination. We picked up some interesting characters! I saw absolutely nothing on the journey because it was raining and was so dark. The bus was supposed to stop at the terminal in Otavalo but it didn't. At one point the bus driver got off and the other bloke took over, then another bloke turned up with his dog. It was all very confusing. Then I realised we had left Otavalo and I got dropped off at the side of a road and had to flag down the next bus going in the opposite direction. By this time it was really late and I didn't know if my hostal would still be open ahhh! It was ok though, I turned up at the hostal and it was a load of little wooden rooms surrounding a central courtyard with loads of trees, a fireplace and a little restaurant. So much better that my apartment AND I had hot water! The bathroom was sooo clean compared to the one in the apertment even though it was for about 15 people. I pretty much collapsed and went to bed after that.