Cotacachi

Abstract of Hotel San Francisco de Quito interior

Sharla:  Hello, all!  Well, we had an interesting experience on our way to Cotacachi yesterday.  We took a taxi from Hotel San Francisco in Quito through Quito during lunchtime traffic.  I honestly don´t know how there are no more accidents there than there are.  It is really unbelievable how narrow the streets are and how close they drive to each other.  And then to top it off, scooters are zipping in and out between the cars.

All of these cars and buses are trying to merge
into one lane!

We finally made it to the bus station after about an hour...it was supposed to be 30 minutes by taxi.  We found the ticket booths, and two booths were fighting for our business.  We wanted an express bus to Cotacachi.  The people that Marsha was talking to said there was one leaving in five minutes for $2.  We must have had SUCKER written across our foreheads, but we were totally unaware at this point we did.

First of all, the bus was not express, it made several stops along the way.  Marsha put her backpack above her head....I kept mine between my feet.  After a few minutes, Marsha noticed that her backpack was gone.  She jumped up and saw it at the very back of the bus.  We both thought it had slid back there, but since there were partitions every few feet, we knew that wasn´t possible.  She retrieved it and looked in it.  She could tell things had been gone through because zippers were unzipped, etc.  Luckily, nothing was gone.  Most of her valuables she had on her person.  Very lucky.  Won´t be doing that again.

Most of the buses show a movie....we saw ALL
of the Transporter movies (seems to be the only
ones any of the buses in Ecuador were showing)
and, of course, they are all in Spanish :)

We got to the end of our trip....everyone got off the bus, and so did we.  We flagged down a taxi, and asked if he knew where the Quinta la Posada was.  He looked at our directions and said in Spanish...."this Posada is in Cotacachi...you are in Ybarra."  What?  How did we end up in Ybarra when we were on a bus that was express to Cotacachi?  This would be where the SUCKER part comes back in to play.  Anyway, we decided to let this nice taxi driver take us to Cotacachi which was another 30 minute drive.  So, our $2 trip to Cotacachi ended up costing us $8 each.  Lesson learned.

We made it the Quinta la Posada and it was well worth all of the trouble.  It is about a ten minute walk from town and it is actually a farm.  We are staying in a beautiful little cabana.  The grounds are beautiful and well maintained.  Every kind of flower and fruit here that you can imagine.  There are limes, lemons, huge avocados, oranges.....etc, etc.  They also have chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs....hundreds of guinea pigs.

Some nice avocados!

We walked to town to find some dinner.  Nearly everything was closed but we spotted a restaurant with saloon doors that was open.  We asked if we could eat there...the girl said yes and disappeared.  We were expecting her to reappear with menus, but instead she brought us a bowl of veggie soup.  We decided that you get whatever is on the stove today.  After the soup, we were brought a plate of rice, potatoes, cabbage, a green banana, and some meat still on the bone.  We took a bite of meat and it was really dry.  The taste was pretty good, but it was really hard to eat.  Everything else on the plate was pretty bland.  After talking about it, we decided that we were eating cuy, or guinea pig!!!  I swore I would NEVER try guinea pig, and here I was trying it.  We ended up putting it in a napkin and sneaking it out of the restaurant so as not to be disrespectful and fed it to a neighborhood dog.  Ugh, all I could think about was Camille´s pet guinea pig, Max, that she had for a long time.

One of the views near Quinta la Posada

The view from Quinta la Posada of
downtown Cotacachi

On the walk from Quinta la Posada to central
Cotacachi

A beautiful mural painted on one of the walls of
a local government building

"Cuy", or guinea pig....considered a delicacy
by many Ecuadorians

We walked around Cotacachi for a while and discovered the town is full of leather stores.....store after store full of leather products.  Really nice stuff.  Got back to the cabana just before dark, and walked around the place.  They have a soccer field and volleyball court behind our cabana and from what we could tell they rent it out.  As a matter of fact, after we got settled in for the night, we saw lots of cars coming in and heard a game going on until probably close to midnight.

We saw this man and his family herding cows,
horses and goats when we were walking back to
our cabana

This is Mary, who hand made many of
the leather goods behind us.

Yes....that is a pig on a leash.

This was our darling cabana at Quinta la Posada.

This morning, we ate breakfast at the restaurant on sight.  Again, we ended up wrapping up most of our food and giving it to the family dog.  Shame on us!  The coffee was good, though!  Can´t wait for some pizza or pasta!  haha

After breakfast, the caretaker took us up to Lake Cuicocha, and dropped us off.  We thought he was being so nice to take us to the lake instead of us having to take a taxi.  I was furiously looking through my new english-spanish dictionary trying to figure out how to say how nice he was to take us all the way to the lake.  When we arrived, he told us, and we managed to figure out that he was charging us $6 each way.  Oh....throw the bloody dictionary away.  haha

Marsha and the caretaker of
Quinta la Posada

Getting ready to board the tour boat....it was cold that morning!

The lake is inside the crater of a volcano and has just filled up over time.  It is beautiful.  We took a boat ride with four others around the lake with a guide.  We couldn´t understand what he was saying, but I´m sure it was interesting.  We had some coffee in a little shop overlooking the lake, and then walked through the tiny market that they had set up there.  We bought a couple of things there, and then the caretaker came back to pick us up and take us back to our hostal.  We have walked back into town to use the internet and make some calls and HOPEFULLY find some good food to eat.  Will write again when I get a chance.  CIAO!!!

Quinta la Posada has many beautiful flowers!

The bus driver didn't quite make the turn!

The small market in Cotacachi

Central Cotacachi

Marsha:  omg. i just read sharlas blog and am laughing so hard i am crying. what can i possibly add to that? perfect.