TravelTalkOnline Forums Trip Reports (Read Only) Trip Report and Photo Archives Day 74 A bus tour to the countryside

March 1 Tour to the countryside
I had arranged for a bus trip into the countryside to Octovalo where there is a large craft market, I didn’t have any intention of buying much but figured it would be a good way to spend the day and see the mountains. The bus picked me up at the nearby Marriott hotel and after a couple more stops we headed out of the city. We passed through some very rugged terrain, I wish they would have planned a few stops for photos, but I did the best I could through the bus window. The guide did point out a lot of extinct volcanoes as we went by, some were quite impressive.
Our first stop was at “the middle of the world” where the equator is laid out; this is the original location of what early surveyors determined to be the equator, modern methods have found the actual location to be a few hundred metres away, but my facebook friends won’t know the difference. We took pictures and the guide did some tricks with an egg so it was pretty cool, thankfully there was no Gamal Dansk at hand.

Straddeling the "equator"


The next stop was a rose farm, which was of no interest to me, though some people seemed to enjoy it; on the comment card I suggested they eliminate that stop in exchange for a few photo stops along the way. We left there and headed finally to Octovalo and the large market that was the highlight of the trip. Along with crafts they sell meals and produce, I always enjoy looking at these types of things and saw some of the different variety of potatoes that are grown in the area. I bought a nice handcrafted leather belt for $12, but nothing else really interested me although the hand painted wooden bowls were very nice. Ordinarilly I would have grabbed a bite to eat from one of the street vendors, but the guide had mentioned a special treat I had been long looking forward to trying would be available at the next stop.

A coulpe selling corn and peas


A woman walks with a baby on her back


Some of the colorful fabrics produced here


An old woman, with sun wrinkled face takes a rest on the sidewalk

Due to the heavy holiday traffic we were behind schedule so only spent an hour there before heading off to our final stop, a town that specializes in leather goods. We drove through more mountainous terrain and finally arrived on the narrow streets of the town. Everyone went into the restaurant for lunch (although it was already 4:00 pm) I was the only one to try the famous South American delicacy cuy, or guinea pig in English. This was a rather large specimen served with head and feet attached it took up the whole plate. Deep fried it was a lot better than manicou and actually tasted like chicken; the skin was crispy and the meat moist and tender. For a minute I even considered raising them at home, but that probably wouldn’t work out as well as I would hope.

Ready for dinner!


Back at the hotel I got a facebook message from Jan, who did the holiday charter and leg 1 of the WARC on Skyelark; he and his girlfriend were in Quito having dinner in old town so I took a taxi down to try to catch up with them. The wifi wasn’t very good at the restaurant so he didn’t get my message and had left before I got there; a military band was giving a performance in the main square so I watch that while before the rain got heavy and headed back to Mariscal in hopes of finding Jan. At this point we were both having wifi issues so it was one missed message after the next; I ended up stopping for coffee and pastry not realizing they were having drinks just couple blocks down the road.

One of the many volcanoes we passed during the day