South American Adventure: Quito and Otovalo

I thought I was done with Quito, but the fun never ends. Sunday, March 2nd we decided to see if we could get into the Ecuadorian Presidential Palace tour. We got in on the 9:45 tour. We saw where the cabinet meets, the big dining room, lots of the gifts that have been given by foreign governments. It was a nice 45 min tour all for free and they even gave us all complimentary photos.

Our trip from our botique hotel in Old Town to the Swissotel where we meet up with REI was an adventure in itself. We hailed a cab and once underway noticed that the driver was older than sin. We had nothing against his age, but began to be concerned about his cab and his ability to drive. He had a standard transmission and seemed to be avoiding 1st and 2nd gears. On a particularly steep hill with the fan belt smoking, the cab stopped making forward progress. David and three other locals managed to push the cab to the crest of the hill. We thought if the Swissotel was downhill from there we might be okay. Alas it was not to be. At an intersection with a slight incline we stopped again. There happened to be a gas station at that corner with an empty cab filling up. We changed cabs. The old guy wasn't happy. David paid him for his portion of our trip. I hope he made it back. In any case we are happily settled in the Swissotel. Monday the 3rd we left for Otovalo.

Here is our REI van. There are 12 of us in the group, there are 4 from California, 6 from WA state, and 2 from Washington DC area.

On the way to Otovalo we stopped at the Equator. Joanne is in the Southern Hemisphere and David is in the northern hemisphere.

David with a young Ecuadorian girl in traditional clothing at the Otovalo market.

They have a tradition during carnival of spraying foam or throwing water on each other. Some of us got "foamed" as we walked through Peguche, just north of Otovalo. We didn't get it as bad as these girls.