Saturday 4 Feb 2012 - Santo Domingo Anya, Ian and Deanna went off to Otavalo for a hike Saturday and then may be making their way to Quito for the afternoon/evening but I elected to stay in the area and see the nearest large town/city, Santo Domingo, despite it not being favoured (for sightseeing, that is), in the guide book. I only needed to get some batteries, food supplies, use the Internet and hoped to find a lavenderia since clothes hadn't yet dried. I al...

Monday 23 Jan 2012 Got up at 6 am to do last of packing up for 7:30 departure to La Hesperia - decided to wear wellies (or just for you, Mike T - willies) rather than lightweight hiking boots as too bulky to pack. We picked up Anya and then Monika dropped us off at a bus terminal to buy us our tickets and to let them know to let us off at 58 km for La Hesperia. We loaded our backpacks and took our hand luggage into two front (allocated) seats and then h...

We went to Cotapaxi today - Monika (house mother) managed to get me onto the trip with the Spanish school, despite me not signing on the list at the start as I wasn´t sure if I wanted to do this, although it´s on the "to-do" lists of many people, especially those going on further to other hikes, such as Machu Picchu. The minibus was very crowded (felt slightly guilty, there) and we set off along the motorway to hopefully make it to Cotopaxi National Park in ab...

Quite a few of us met up at either the school or Plaza Foch, including the two Swiss girls at my house to visit Otavalo market today - it took two buses and about two-and-half hours. It´s one of the "must-dos" in the guidebook. We could have gone with the Spanish school, but decided it would be cheaper to do it ourselves, even though the Spanish school excursion included stopping over at one or two other locations. We caught a local bus to the North Terminal ...

Quite a few of us met up at either the school or Plaza Foch, including the two Swiss girls at my house to visit Otavalo market today - it took two buses and about two-and-half hours. It´s one of the "must-dos" in the guidebook. We could have gone with the Spanish school, but decided it would be cheaper to do it ourselves, even though the Spanish school excursion included stopping over at one or two other locations. We caught a local bus to the North Terminal ...