We had a leisurely last morning in Banos and then got onto the long bus ride up to Otavalo. I had been good and patient the entire trip and not once dragged Dair shopping, but this was our final weekend in South America, and one of the biggest and most important markets on the continent was taking place the next day. It was time to make some purchases; however torturous the outing may be for my travel companion, I was on a mission.

We arrived in the dark, checked into our hostel and grabbed some dinner. I wanted to get a good night's sleep so we could have a very early start to our day of bargaining. It was no lie; the market was HUGE!! It extended down every street and every direction you turned there were more and more stalls to be found. Yay, it was time to put my latent skills into action. After a long trek through Asia, I had become very adept at garnering good deals in market-type situations.

The first hour or so was simply spent scoping out the scene and getting a sense of initial pricing. Then the shopping began. I pointed to the painting I wanted and asked the price. They responded by asking for forty dollars. "My friend, can't you find a special price for me?". And the games had begun. We spent a few hours going from stall to stall trying to haggle the best deals I could. I say "I" because there was only once that Dair jumped in with, "yes, that's a great price, we'll take it", wanting to be part of the adventure. I shot him the look of death that said "you know they would have gone down another five dollars, and if you butt in again, I'll tie you up back at the hostel and leave you there". After that it was pretty much my show.

We were doing great and stopped in for a quick piece of the most fabulous blackberry pie that you could ever imagine to fuel us back up. But I felt it happening even in me; the vim and vigor was slowly dissipating. Dair went silent and traipsed along behind me. While it's true that he didn't say a word, he was thinking very loudly something to the effect of "Can't we just sit down now?" and "Aren't you almost finished yet?". I will give credit where credit is due though and make clear that not once was a complaint actually vocalized.

By about five o'clock our shopping was done, and we headed back to Quito. The most amazing thing happened; our two hour bus ride actually took two hours! Perhaps things were finally looking up again. All that was left was to visit middle Earth and we would be Florida bound!!