Quito & Otavalo - Week 48

11th to 16th August

So FINALLY we got to Quito and spent most of our time getting ready for coming back home to reality! A few hours on the cv and various calls to agencies for Katie and lots of hours sorting out a car to buy as soon as we get home for James!

The Mariscal in the new town of Quito where we are staying is a prime spot for bumping into people that you have met months before (much room for embarrassment when they remember your name and you don't remember theirs...). In one day, we bumped into four different people from various parts of the trip and arranged to meet a couple of them for curry in the evening. Inevitably for Quito it turned into a session and also karaoke was involved...



We did manage to get to Otovalo which is a little town 2 hours away from Quito with the largest market in South America. It was fantastic, so many lovely things to buy and soooo cheap! Just wait till you see all the tat we bought! We were there in the week when the market is not so big but there were no tourists there at all so we had the run of the place to ourselves and it was also much cheaper. Although bargaining is the norm in South America, we felt bad demanding lower prices when they were selling beautiful woollen scarves for a pound!!

Not too much else to report on five days in Quito! We didn't even manage to get to the equator so will have to do that when we get back from Galapagos!