Ecuador

We got away from Pasto before 8:00 am on Saturday to be at the border near Ipiales before it got too busy. The main highways in Colombia are generally very good and we had a nice ride to Ipiales with more beautiful mountain scenery. The border crossing was a breeze and free; a nice change from Central America. Both sides took us about an hour or so and everybody seemed quite friendly and relaxed. We met a helicopter pilot from Kimberly, BC who works for Abitibi. He's working in Peru but was on holidays with his two daughters and his wife. They were traveling by bus and loaded down with back packs. Once across the border we tried to find a side road that parallels the Pan American Highway but it was too confusing to get on to and we ended up back on the main road. The country changes drastically with the changes in elevation. We started out in lush green hillsides and passed through a very arid section that reminded me of the Similkameen Valley near Keremeos. We spent last night at a great small hotel in Otavalo, Ecuador. It was cloudy and cool when we got here yesterday with a few rain showers so it was a nice change.

Ecuador just south of the Colombia border.

More arid area north of Ibarra

They looked prettier from a distance.

The lush farmland was only about an hour ride from here.

At a food stall in the market.

It always smells so good in the markets. Besides the food cooking there is lots of fresh fruit, veggies, spices and herbs.

Otavalo is dominated by Cerro Imbabura. It's a volcano that looms over the town. It's a good reason to be religious. If it ever gets active it won't be a good thing for the town. Otavalo is famous for its market and Saturday is market day. It was very busy in town. There are a lot of Indigenous people here who wear their traditional clothing in the normal course of life. That goes for both men and women. Also, most of the guys have long hair tied back in a ponytail.. It's really cool to see. I had heard or read somewhere that they don't like to have their picture taken. I guess if people keep walking up and taking your picture because you're so short (some of the people here are about 4 feet tall) or your clothes are different it would get a little annoying. I also read they think the photo takes away a part of them but I don't know about that. Anyways, I kept the camera in my  pocket most of the time but there was an older man selling puppies and I thought it would be okay to take a picture of a dog. Nope. The man, who was picking up the puppy, turned away from me and said "no photos". So that was that. We also spoke to a woman from Belgium who was taking a scenic picture with a cow in it and some guy got really mad at her. She said she gave him some money to quiet him down. Hmmm...maybe that's it.

I was a bit surprised at the huge number of tourists here. It's only a short distance from Quito and buses come up here for the day. There's lots of Europeans and Canadians and Americans. Even in our small hotel we met people from Vancouver and Victoria. It's been quite a while since we've seen this many tourists.
We met a local guy in a bar last night who spoke very little English but we had a good time talking to him. I'm pretty sure he invited us to his place for a party tonight. He was trying to explain that we weren't considered Gringos here. I think the term is a little more derogatory around here. Again, the people are quite friendly.Well, except for the picture thing.
Today we went for a long walk to see a nice waterfall and a lake near town. It felt good to stretch the legs a bit although we probably got a bit too much sun. Speaking of that, the sun is almost directly overhead now. We are only a few kilometers north of the Equator so that will be another milestone for us. I was showing someone on Google Maps last night where we started our trip from and I had the map panned out to show North and South America. The cursor for our location was almost on the Equator and that's when it dawned on me just how far we've come.
We also met some guys from Boston today who are here doing some mountaineering. It sounded like they were on an organized tour and had taken a day off. They had rented motorcycles in Quito and come up to Otavalo for the day. They'll be climbing to as high as 20,000 feet so were doing progressively higher mountains every few days in order to acclimatize. Neil had a good chat with them because they were in the contracting and building supply business.

On our way to the waterfall, Cascada de Peguche

Here it is. It's very popular. Even with the locals.

At the top of the waterfall someone had carved a tunnel to get past the cliff.

On the trail to the waterfall.

Neil sneaked a picture of me drinking rum in the bar last night.

A view of Otavalo from near the highpoint of our hike.

See how small his shadow is?

Cerro Imbabura

I bought some shirts from this guy in the market and he wanted me to try on a mask.

Not too sure what we're doing this afternoon but it sounds like there's a movie or something at our hotel so that might be interesting.
Oh yeah, I'm feeling a little pressure now that I see Ross Campbell is following the blog. So I'm trying to work on my spelling, punctuation and grammar and stuff. Dammit.
Anyways, I think that's all for now.
Hasta luego.