There was little information available online for places to stay in Tulcán, so we relied on a Lonely Planet recommendation called Hotel Azteca. It was a very aged hotel and we are pretty sure we were the only guests. Despite paying for 2 people we were only allowed one towel. At least it was super cheap.

We wandered around the town for the afternoon, checked out the main square, and found an internet café since our hotel had no WiFi. They charged a whopping 1 cent a minute. We also found a pizza place that looked really nice so we returned there later for dinner.

It was a tiny restaurant where the husband made the pizza and the wife served our drinks. Lindsay ordered a hot chocolate which came in a soup bowl just about. Since they didn't have a menu we had to design our own pizza, ordering it with all the pizza toppings we knew the Spanish words for.

In the morning we set off to find the famous Tulcán Cemetery. It's a really fascinating place and was well worth the visit. The grounds are full off topiary Cypress Trees, and in the 30's the then grounds keeper decided to shape the bushes into animals, Pre-Colombian and Agustínian figures and high hedges. The public loved it so much that the tradition now continues with his 5 sons maintaining it.

The place was huge. There were some below ground grave sites, but most were above ground shelves. Some of these you could go onto the top of to get a view over the cemetery. There were grass sections bordered by perfectly manicured hedges, some mounted with sculpted figures, and rows and rows of shaped animals and heads. A bizarre and fascinating place.

After our little morning expedition we made our way to the bus station to catch a bus to Quito.

LAPFWT