Volcanos, markets, bicycles and pigs...

Phew another busy adventure week gone by. Bused it a few hours north from Quito to the highland town of Otavalo. It is very much on the gringo trail thanks to its huge Saturday indigenous market dating back to pre-inca times. Its damn touristy but great for people watching. The Otavalenos still wear their traditional colourful garb and both the men and women look stunning. Can´t say i actually bought much but there were tons of of tourist orientated crafts, shawls, jackets etc for sale. Made for interesting wanderings as the streets are jam packed with stalls.

The market takes over pretty much the whole town. For me what was interesting was the huge food market that is jam packed with stalls selling the most bizarre looking fruits, others were selling unidentifiable animal parts (not for vegos) not to mention all the people and dogs milling around. There are also lunch stalls selling cheap meals for 1$ or less. The most interesting was the pork one. The front half of a bbq'd pig is displayed in a tray. The head faces the front allowing the attendant to scoop out the meat with her hands and then place it the bubbling juices warmed up at the back end of the tray that is over a flame. Hmm sounds good eh? It´s served on a plate with some maize and salad. So what it means is as u walk along the aisle have 10 or so piggy faces staring out. A bit like those clowns at sideshow alley. Truly macabre. Is a reason go to vegie here...Bummer was having camera hassles so couldn't get a pic of the pigs..

Having survived the markets, the next day i hired a mtb with some newly meet Czech and Slovakian friends to do a ride around the lagunas de Mojanda (lakes of Mojanda) which are in a huge volcano crater at 3700m. We decided not to ride the up the 2000 mtrs to the volcano crater and instead caught a kind of ute taxi! It turned out to be a brilliant day even though it was freezing and overcast up there. Got some great riding in and chatted to some friendly locals on horseback. Coming down the 17ks of crappy, rough as hell cobblestone road i lost it and hit the deck pretty hard and fast! No bones broken but it hurt like hell and lost a bit of skin..was worth it though.

Having made it back to Otavalo on the bike we jumped in a bus and headed to back to Quito. I said good by to my new friends and bused it south to Banos. Banos is another highland town in the middle of the country that is under the shadow of Volcan Tunguracha. In 2000 the volcano was given a red alert meaning that an eruption was imminent and the town evacuated. Nothing eventuated and it was downgraded and everyone returned. Last year there was also an eruption warning but once again nothing happened. Seems like Tunguracha is playing games...Haven't been able to catch a glimpse of this monster as the weather has been overcast and rainy...But being a thermal region there are some great thermal pools in town that i've made use of...

Back on the bike yesterday and did a 60k decent following an stunning gorge down to the amazonian town of Puyro. The views were damn impressive with 200ft drops at some points. A cycleway has been constructed that skirts along the gorge. Also took a motorised firefox type cage suspended by cables across the canyon to the other side and back for the grand sum of 1 buc. Once again camera hassles so no pix..Puyro is a rickety and not that attractive looking jungle town. Was def about the journey and not the destination. The best part of the trip is u don't have to ride back up the 1700 mts or so of hills - u simply throw the bike on top of a bus and watch the hills roll by from the window eating hot chips sold by vendors that do their rounds through the bus!

Tomorrow am making my back to Quito town before i fly out to hang out with some iguanas, turtles, sharks and blue footed boobies on the Galapagos isls! Ended up booking a 8 day cruise on the 'friendship', a small motor boat that takes 18 or so...until next time..hasta luego...