Baños

The next day we decided to move on from Quito before we got sucked into another free rum night at the hostel (it seemed they were compulsory!).

We headed south to a little town called Baños and contrary to what this means in Spanish, we were not visiting toilet town!

It is a very popular destination, if a little touristy which is surrounded by mountains and rivers making it very picturesque.

It is famous for it's hot springs and spa treatments and we were determined to take full advantage!

We found a cute little spa and had the full works - full body massage, reflexology, manicure, pedicure and a facial. Well the South American equivalent of all of those with quite a few corners cut and guess work about the treatments! It was also kind of strange as the 3 of us were all in a tiny room together with the 'therapists' shuffling around each other to have enough space. Also one of them can't have been much older than about 15!

Afterwards, we had a treatment called ionic cleansing where you put your feet in water with ions running through it and it cleans the toxins out of your body. It's pretty gross as the water goes a yellowy, brown colour from what is extracted from your body. After a while a white foam appears too which is apparently fat, urgh!

xxx

The Centre of the Earth

After having barely slept, we were all feeling pretty rough and tired but we wanted to do something with the day, rather than being confined to our room with mammoth hangovers!

So we ventured out on a very hungover trip to the Mitad Del Mundo (or as we nicknamed it, The Centre of the Earth). This is where the equator line sits and you can be in the northern & southern hemisphere at the same time.

It's all a bit strange (standard) as the line that they have painted is actually 600m off to the true Equator line...?!

So we did the tourist thing and had our photo taken straddling the 'line'!

The whole thing was a little over hyped and we found it a little underwhelming, especially as the line is wrong! But perhaps we were just not in the right frame of mind to appreciate it or we were expecting too much.

It was worth the visit just to see what it was all about though. And to chase the llamas round that live there in an attempt to get a photo!

xxx

12 litres of free rum - standard Monday!

Monday night (and actually Wednesday & Friday too) at our hostel turned out to be rum night, which meant that the hostel gave us all 12 litres of free rum and coke to drink, starting at 6pm.

After having a well rested weekend and a couple of early nights, we were ready to have a good night and get to know the people in our hostel. It was really sociable and everyone got involved and bonded over a few drinks which was really nice.

So after successfully polishing off the 12 litres (and actually a few more afterwards), we headed out slightly forgetting that it was Monday and for the 'real world' in Quito this does not equal drinking and partying! Everywhere was pretty quiet but we still had loads of fun all together.

Chanelle and I were in a world of constant giggling and laughing for the night. We also had some really funny guys in our room Keyoren & Sam, who along with Alice, made the night even more hilarious!

Apparently (as we later found out) there was an earthquake in Quito that night. Not sure how strong it was, but turns out we were all too smashed to notice. Whoooooops!

We barely slept as we were having so much fun in the room and were just constantly making each other laugh all night. We would all fall quiet for a few minutes then someone would make a joke and the laughter would start all over again! It was like we were having a proper old school sleepover with the 5 of us!

Very funny and brilliant night!

xxx

Girls Reunited!

After arriving in Quito and successfully finding the girls in a cute little hostel, we spent my first night in Quito catching up on the last few days... And it seemed ALOT had happened in those 5 days for all of us! Needless to say the night was spent gossiping...

On Monday morning we got up and went on a walking tour of the old part of the city. Without realising we had timed our walk perfectly to see the changing of the guard in the main plaza. It was a pretty big deal with the president and his family there to wave to the crowds. All of the guards were dressed head to toe in uniform and there was a full marching band and guards on horseback.

It was amazing to see and it was nice because the crowd wasn't just made up of tourists, there were lots of Ecuadorian people who had popped out from work etc to watch the ceremony and show their support for the current political party.

The whole thing lasted between 30 - 40 minutes and was very grand. Seems a little over the top though considering that it happens exactly the same every week (President, marching band and all).

We then spent the rest of the day looking at the other sites of Quito like the cathedral, the parks and the observatory.

It was soooo nice to be back together again (even though our break from each other was short!). Although we all missed Pam.

xxx

Cotachi

On Sunday, after a well rested night (I had a luxury room with a tv so got into bed early, watched tv and crashed about 10.30pm - rock and roll!) I decided to check out another Andean town close by, Cotachi which is only 20mins away on a local bus. It is renowned for being the leather town so I headed there to check out what was on offer!

It was a cute little town much like Otavalo with most of the local people wearing the traditional dress, but it was on a smaller scale with only 1 main street filled with shops selling handmade leather items.

The majority of it was South American fashion but they did have a few really nice things (like a pony skin bag and a $200 dollar shawl which I completely fell in love with).

After wandering a shopping for a few hours, I bought a few bits and ended up leaving town with only the essentials (!)- a new handbag (Roge I sadly said goodbye to the many pocket bag), a new pair of shoes and a shawl (don't panic, I resisted the amazing but expensive one).

It was about $40 for everything and considering it's all leather, I reckon that's pretty good!

So I got back on the bus with all my shopping, headed back to Otavalo. After picking up my backpack I got a bus straight to Quito. I went in the hope of meeting back up with Chanelle & Alice who had left Colombia the day after me and headed straight there. Sadly Pam was MIA as she had gone to Rosa's farm (the nice lady from Minca), and landed herself a job teaching English for a month!

xxx

Market Day

It was finally market day and I was excited to see what all the hype was about.

I started the day relatively early at 7.30am to head to the crazy animal market on the western edge of town. This part of the market is like nothing I have ever seen before!

Local indigenous people go and mill around with goats, cows, pigs and various other things on leads where they haggle, inspect and bargain over the best animals!

They also turn up with bags and crates rammed full of live hamsters, rabbits, guinea pigs all ready to sell. I would like to think that they are being bought by people as nice pets for children, however I fear that the question of the 'mystery meat' I have been eating for the last few months, has now been solved!

There were even kittens on sale which I really really hope were being sold as pets and not food....

After spending a few hours there marvelling and being completely in ore of the whole sight, I wandered into the main part of the town.

There were stalls set up everywhere and every inch of road and pavement was full! There was a definite lean towards the beginnings of rough logic to the layout with different roads being dedicated to different things, like fruit and veg street. There was even a red indian street selling only feather head pieces, dream catchers and what seemed to be Pocahontas fancy dress gear (which I was soooo tempted to buy!). In true South America scatty style, there were however many roads selling absolutely everything with no order to them at all. Some stalls were selling traditionally made handicrafts while others were selling chicken feet, and others tourist souvenir rubbish!

All of the 'Otavaleños' (local indigenous people) remain self determined and culturally uncompromised and most of them wear nothing but the traditional dress. You can also buy this from head to toe at the market with so many trimmings, decorations and hats in bright colours making the whole scene so full of life and colour.

I couldn't resist adding so many photos to this post to try to get across the full sensory experience that was Otavalo market.

xxx

Crossing into Ecuador

The bus perhaps for the first time on this trip, actually took the amount of time it was meant to and got me to the border on time (around 9am).

After getting my passport checked and my stamps, I was so close to successfully crossing the border into Ecuador. BUT got asked to go to the police hut and have my bag searched. I'm sure the police guy just wanted to chat and practice his English as he definitely didn't do a thorough search.

He did however search long enough to find the 'cock trump' playing cards (thanks G.O.T for those!) and have a good look through. He actually found them so amusing that he called his friends over to play a quick game with him, whilst pointing and laughing at the photos! Ha. Again thanks for those girls...

Once I was safely over the border, I had another 4 hour bus journey but eventually I arrived safely in the Andean town of Otavalo. It was Friday afternoon so perfect to explore a little before the madness of the market really got going the next day.

xxx

Ridiculous Bus Ride Numero Dos

So slightly blinded by the tears and crying I settled into the bus ride to the Colombian border which was 20 hours away!

The bus was again ridiculous but this time in a good way as it was an amazing upmarket and modern bus. They gave you free headphones, there were flatscreen TVs and it even had wifi - it was more like getting on a plane! So at least for the journey I was crying in comfort and being entertained! I even watched Ratatouille (in Spanish) as Disney films always make you feel better!

xxx

An emotional goodbye...

So the next morning we all got up and I had made my mind up about what I was going to do.

I had decided that although I would be super sad to leave the girls (Pam, Chanelle & Alice), I wanted to get moving and try to make it to what is rumoured to be South Americas best market in Otavalo. It is about 2 hours north of Quito so I knew I was in for another long, hardcore bus journey.

I was really sad about leaving the girls and also leaving Colombia because I could have easily spent ALOT more time there. But not only I was up against time, it was also eating away at my money and I wanted to get to Ecuador as its cheaper and save some pennies where possible.

So Thursday morning I booked my cab to the bus station and it arrived even before I had a chance to say a proper goodbye. It was a quick hug and a 'hopefully see you again in Ecuador!' I left the girls sat on the Internet deciding where in Colombia they were going to head to next.

I spent the rest of the morning crying at the bus station and on the bus super sad at our adventure not continuing!

xxx

Graffiti

As I said, Bogota is covered in graffiti and this is just some cool stuff I saw...

xxx