Otavalo, Ecuador

Yesterday we spent most of the day in transit but took in the breath taking scenery along the drive from the south of Colombia through part of The Andean mountain range into Ecuador and to the Andean town of Otavalo. It was an interesting journey from Popayan which involved two different buses, with a chicken on the first one and a dog in a nappy on the second, followed by a collectivo, just to get to the border. However the border crossing was really quick and very easy and then we hopped on another bus to Otavalo.

Otavalo is a pretty basic place with lovely picturesque surrounding mountains and daily markets taking place in the central plaza, 'Poncho Plaza'. We arrived in late and tired after a long journey to find that the hostel we had planned to stay in was completely closed down but luckily we spotted another one a few blocks away that just about did the job. The receptionist seemed to giggle at whatever we said but it had a 4 bed room perfect for a nights rest. This morning we got a great breakfast in a restaurant on the plaza and spent the rest of the morning wandering through the market admiring all the Alpaca and Llama woolens. We're now about to jump on a bus to Quito, the capital of Ecuador which is only a few hours away.