I was so glad to have a day to relax before heading out with my fathers side of the family... I sooo needed that, plus i really had to get my laundry done.
The night before I left, there was some tragic news to report for the goverment of Ecuador. On the 15, they had just appointed a new president, and during this time he announced his new staff. This was a first, a staff where, i think, 7-9 of the members were female. This was something rarely heard of here. Anyways, one of the appointed officials was not received quite nicely, this was the Minster of Defense. The problem here was, it was a female, part of the socialist party leader, and she wasn't from a military background. Needless to say, from what i had heard her speak, she seemed a good fit. Ok, so the tragedy. That night, while in the military base located in Manta, she was going to be going on a training mission with 2 helicopters that were recently equiped for night missions. Her 17 year old daughter was also in attendance. There seemed to be some miscommunication between the helicopters and both collided in mid-air. In the end, 6 offers and 2 civilians (the minister and her daughter) were killed. Ok, so why am i telling you all of this... just read on...
Day 1:
Today my one aunt, who I will be staying with for the next few days picked me up and our first stop was to head south of Quito to a small town called Machachi. the plan was to gather with the half of the family that lives in that town for lunch and then head way up north to Ibarra. During the ride, we were given some shocking news... As it turns out, my uncle that lives in Machachi, has a son in the military and is stationed out of Manta, and to top it, he's a helicopter pilot. As it turns out, he had asked permission to be one of the pilots on the mission that ended the life of the minister of defense. It was his commanding officer would not let him, as he was the master of ceremonies for all that was going on... I guess god was watching out for him, he never got on and he lived, unfortunately, all of his friends were killed. And to top it off, he had to go on the recovery mission. Can you imagin... I almost lost my cousin... Now that would've really put a damper on my trip... YIKES...
Ok, so once we got to Machichi we met with one of my uncles and his family at his store, then went to see my cousin and her baby and finally we all went out to lunch. There were about 13 of us and we went to this place call "Cafe de la Vaca" (coffee from the cow). It was a pretty kewl place, it was located on a dairy farm and I'm told that during the milking the people staying in the hostel or visitors are allowed to purchase the milk right there... Sorry we missed that... LOL... After lunch, we went to my other cousins house were i met her children, saw wedding pictures and finally hit the road.
It was a cold day for us, raining and foggy. Our trip back up to Ibarra took us over 6 hours... We had to go slow, one wrong turn, and over the side you go... YIKES!!!
Day 2:
My first night in Ibarra wasn't really much. Since we didn't get in until after 10, i basically had my coffee and then went to bed. Today, I woke up early, as always, and we set up our plan of attack. We were going to hit as many small towns and do a little shopping.
First off, the market... We needed to stock up on breakfast food... OMG, all the fresh fruit they had, and some i never heard of, so of coarse we picked those. I got rasperries to make fresh juice with, bananas for smoothies, apples oranages and god i can't remember the name of all the other stuff... we were set. Dropped that off at home and now headed out to the other towns.
Next, Laguna de Yahuarcocha. This is a small "town" that surrounds the lake Yahuarchocha. We drove around the lake looking at the house. To my amazement, there actually have a racetrack on the site. It's a small track but they do do some big races. After that we went to a town call San Antonio. San Antonio is known for it's woodcraft. We parked and hit the stores. There were some of the typical artwork you see in all the towns, the carved out men and woman, and my god... all the wooded nativity scenes... Guess they had an overflow after christmas.. hehe. i did a little shopping here, getting some gifts for friends and family and of coarse myself. We met with some of the artists and photographed them as they made their latest creation.
After San Antonio we went to Otavalo. Here we picked up my other aunt so we can go to lunch at Hotel Otavalo. The we drove thru a few other towns... Atuntachi, which is known for it's textiles, nothing big to buy here, so we moved on. Then we went to Cuicoha, which is another lake. We drove up this rocky muddy road to the top of the mountain to a resort called Hosteria Los Pinos. We walked out to the end of the mountain, and even though the fog was starting to settle in, we were still able to see the lake... It was beautiful, but now it's raining. So we had to head down the muddy rocky road and we went to the lake to view it from the reserve park. It was really nice, cold and misty but nice. After this we drove to the Selva Legre, which is the biggest manufacturing plant for cement. The funny part here, you know those signs you see that say the number of day without an injury??? Well, their count was 2... HEHE
Day 3:
This was the day I was looking forward to... Otavalo's Feria de los Ponchos... SHOPPING!!!!
We started off the by meeting at my aunts house in Otavalo and she suggested that before we go to the market that we should head up to see the condors. Out in Sand Pablo del Lago, there is a place called Parque Condor (Condor Park), here is a natural habitat where condors, eagles, owls and hawks are raised and trained. They take in orphaned and abandoned birds and raise them. We got there just in time for the 11 show. Here they were setting hawks free and letting them fly out, i really thought they were like 'I'M FREE!!!!', but nope. Once the trainer blew his whistle, they were back to his side, no questions asked. They also had a cute small bird that was just sqeaking like crazy, cuz it knew that he'd be getting fed soon. I was given the chance to hold on to the bird, it was so cute. After the show, we walked around and looked at all of the other birds that they had there and i took several pictures of some nice owls, eagles and hawks, oh and not to mention the Condor there.
After Parque Condor, we headed back to Otavalo to go shopping at the market. Today, Saturday, is the big day here with the market in town and boy can you get stuff for cheap here. I bought several gifts for friends and family, and of coarse myself. My bags are gonna be way over the limit. After several hours of shopping and walking around, we finally headed back home and i was ready for sleep... Oh, and did i mention, I had twisted my ankle while at the condor park and after the long day of walking, my leg was ready to give out... UGH!!!
Day 4:
It's Sunday morning, and it looks like it's going to be a clear morning. I had some last minute shopping to do in town, and then we were going to be heading out to Cotacachi for yet another family dinner. I met up with my aunt and cousin in Cotacachi and did a little more shopping there. Cotacachi is another small town, which is well known for it's leather products. My aunt bought some gifts for my family and I bought for myself (of coarse).
After this, we went to lunch. Today it was going to be the typical food for the region, Fritada, which is marinated pork medalians served with several different sides such as avocado, homily, corn, llampingachos, and so much more... Once we were done here, we went back to Cotacachi and went to my aunts house, checked out my uncles new hostal they are renovating, and then back to another aunts house for a little bite to eat.
I have seen all of my dad's brothers and sisters, several of there kids and even there kids... I'm DONE!!! Only 1 more day and then I can get back to thinking of how i will try to fit all this stuff in my luggage.
Day 5:
Today was my last day in Ibarra, so 3 of my aunts and myself set out on the LONGEST drive ever. the day started out great, it was a really clear morning that i was actually able to see 3 of the mountains from the roadside, the Imbabura, the Cotacahi and even the snow on the Cayambe. The first 2 are usually visible to some degree, but the 3rd, now that one is usually hard to see, and when i saw the sun reflecting off the mountain, i new it was snow and that is the only mountain with snow within the area...
So we were off, we drove north towards La Paz. It was a long winding road, thru the mountains and the landscape was beautiful. Our first stop was Ambuque, here we got some fruit from the roadside vendor. The fruit here is called obos, it's an orangy fruit with a large seed and it's very sweet. Our next stop was at the entrance of Bolivar where we purchased "Rosquettes". These are almost like a powdered sugar donut, but not as cakie as a donut. After this we heading even more into the mountains, the roads were getting narrower and the thought of an on coming car just scared me to death... there really wasn't much of shoulder on these roads. To our luck we didn't have any on coming cars and/or trucks. We eventually reached La Paz. This town is known for a cave in which there was a sighting of the virgin mary. So they have built an alter in the cave that is adorned with flowers and people come visit and pray to her. The kicker with this is, we are at the top of a mountain, we now have to walk down to get to the cave level to see this. Also in this are are thermal pools that are filled by the river that flow from the cave. After visiting the alter we headed back up and stopped to eat at a little restaurant that is run by the nun's that keep the alter area.
Our journey was not over. My one aunt wanted to go see some flowers/plants that are called (and I'm sure i'm spelling it wrong) frilejones... It's some plant that grows on the sides of the roads and she remembers it from like 50 years ago. So as you can guess, this was a wild goose chase. The roads were long and bumpy.. no asphalt here, just gravel and cobble streets... it was a very bumpy ride... It turns out, after being on the road for over 2 hrs the only frilejones we saw were in the front of there reserve park... Ok, this trip, i will never want to do again. I had the worst back ache and head ache from all the bumping rides... Now we had to drive back home... UGH, no more cars!!!
Day 6:
Today I leave Ibarra and head back to Quito. I spent several hours packing and unpacking, making sure i wasn't over my weight limit, but i know i am. I kept on adjusting my weights in my carry on bags so that it doesn't kill me as i run thru the airports.
I have one last night with my cousins in Quito, so we decided to go out for some cocktails and a quick bite to eat. It was a good end to my trip.
Day 7:
Time to head home... I'm sooo exited!!! I'm ready to get out of here and get back into my own bed. I also miss my pooch... I can't wait to get back home, this trip was long enough, now it's back to the real world and WORK!!! YUCK!!! I guess I can do without that part!
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