Back on dry land and ridiculous altitude in Quito yesterday, time for a day trip to the market in Otavalo.

Not for us an organised tour, no we hit the local bus service for the 2 USD, 2 hour journey. Bargain and they even put the English subtitles on the movie - Journey 2 - The Mysterious Island. Highly recommended!

Otavalo has 4 markets, the two of touristic interest are the livestock and the artisan products. What can I say about the livestock market? Cows, sheep, pigs, chickens? Tick. Kittens in a sack? Tick. Puppies crammed in cages? Tick. Baskets of guinea pigs? Tick. It's an animal rights activist's worst nightmare and then some. Not sure which were destined for the dinner table and which weren't. Be warned if you check out the photos (once I get around to uploading them).

The artisan market was a mixed bag. I hadn't realised that Simpsons and Smurf wooly hats were traditional Andes wear, but apparently so. To be fair there was some decent and authentic stuff, but an awful lot of tat. Paradise for the stereotypical grungy travellers that we are doing our utmost to avoid!

The town itself is a mixed bag of crumbling colonial and crumbling modern.

We also caught an even more local bus to nearby Cascada de Pechuge, a nature park set around a waterfall. Very pleasant.

The movie on the bus back to Quito was the multi Oscar-nominated (or should be) Death Race 2, 'starring' Luke Goss of Bros fame. Or was it Matt? The two nuns sat in the second row seemed enthralled!! Check it out if you haven't already. "Mi nombre es Frankenstein".