Quito, Otavalo & Vilcabamba The Avenue of Volcanoes

Buenas Dias! We are thoroughly enjoying Ecuador and all it has to offer. Quito is a wonderful city and we were able to take a cable car to the top of Pichincha Volcano to take a peek.  It is 4100 or so metres high (13,500 ft) and we hiked up as far as we could with many short stops to catch our breath.  The air sure is thin up there but we got a great view. There are 137 volcanoes in Ecuador and two of the active ones including Pichincha are in Quito.

We saw the Cotopaxi Volcano which is also active as we drove out to Otovalo to visit the largest market in South America last Saturday.  Cotopaxi is the highest volcano in the world and it is the closest to the sun because it is so close to the equator. Both Gary and I signed up for a quick Spanish Lession in Quito in a desperate attempt to improve our Tarzan Spanish - me want drink - is sort of where we are at right now and we wish to improve.

View Towards Otovalo

 We said good bye to Quito and flew out to Vilcabamba in southern Ecuador for some great R& R.  Vilcabamba reminds us a lot of the Okanagan because it is dry like the desert but the hills are green and beautiful.  The temperature here is just perfect. We got to go horseback riding which was really fun.  We had great gentle horses but they galloped us up and down some pretty sprectacular trails and we got some great views.  My legs and saddle are really sore now but is was worth it.

 We are moving on to Peru next on our way to Bolivia where things are going to be a bit more basic than what we have encountered so far.
Much more to come.
Hasta Luego!
Pat & Gary