Today started out really cold; there was no hot water. So
showers were short and freezing. But it got us going. We had breakfast and went
on a quick walk before we headed out. This time
we were only accompanied by the two goldies, we learned their names were
Miel and Luke. It was a shorter walk and we only had one incident when we ran
into a bull. The dogs freaked but the cow was being handled by a farmer so no
worries.
We headed out and our first stop was a veggie market in
Paleleo city. We had a little game where we were supposed to find a fruit or
veggie that we didn’t know what it was or looked weird. If we stumped our guide
too we would get a bar of chocolate.
The market was fun, a little chaotic but everyone was busy
about their wares. I approached a lady with a basket filled with yellow long
fruit. I tried to ask what it was and the lady just handed me a piece for free.
She was really nice. My sister and parents found some other fun weird fruit and
it was fun interacting with the natives.
The next stop was a farm for roses. Normally there would be
workers everywhere but because is was the weekend after Mothers Day most of the
workers were off but it was really cool to walk around the fields of roses and
see the process of how they harvest and ship them.
They sort through and dethorn the roses here
this shows how they transport the bunches
Out in the fields
Apparantly in some countries the longer the stem on the rose the better. Some even getting to 6 feet!
We had lunch at a beautiful mansion that was like a plantation from the south. They even had
lamas! While we were having lunch we pulled out all of our strange fruit and
even had the chance to try most of them. The one I got was Taxo the flavor of
my ice cream the other day. Most of the other fruit were really unique but our
guide was not stumped by any of them. It was still really fun.
After lunch we headed to Quito for the end of our trip. When
we got there we were given free time and of course we spent it at the market
getting last minute souvenirs and gifts. We had some trouble talking them down
on a few items but in the end we got what we were looking for. Then we wanted
to explore the city a little more and mom said she saw another market up the
street. When we got there it was amazing. It had all the normal stuff but then
there were a lot of very unique items. Mom found her nativity and dad found his
chess set. I ran across some awesome earrings made from real butterfly wings, one
was even the Blue Morpho that we saw in the Amazon. All of it a great find.
I didn’t get anything else big though, at the beginning of
this trip I had to use a small luggage and a backpack to get to Ecuador so not
a lot of space. I still made off with a good haul and it all fit! That’s a
miracle.
For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant owned by our
guides twin brother. Tasty food and fun to just relax with our guide. Then we
got back to our hotel and watch a movie and then bed.
I’m going to finish up our trip here. Then next morning we
headed to the market for a just in case look but didn’t see anything. Then got
on the bus to the airport. Then it was off to home.
It was an amazing trip; exceeded all my expectations and
more. Definitely worth doing if anyone is looking into it.
Thanks Ecuador, and farewell :)
Adventure is out there!
No comments:
Post a Comment