Tentative Plans for Take-Off

We are almost ready to leave Sidewinder for the interior of Ecuador. Plans are hard to make, given our lack of resources and time, but the following itinerary is what I have written down so far and hope we will be able to experience. We take a bus from La Libertad on Tuesday morning and depart from Guayaquil airport on Tuesday at noon to arrive in Quito at 12:55 PM. There the Secret Garden Hostel will pick us up, and we will immediately find ourselves in Old Town, Quito. We have reservations for two nights, but there is a chance we will go to Otavalo on Wednesday morning so that we can be there for #2 market day. Lonely Planet describes this area so well and we look forward to exploring the weaving and leathering villages surrounding Otavalo. "Behind the broad and bountiful selection of the woolens stalls at the Otavalo market is a living-breathing industry with a culture unto itself. Small indigenous villages outside of Otavalo are home to weaving families Weavers gather in a small dirt-floor room to do their swift, silent work.....There's beauty in the artistry handed down from the generations."

Rodrigo Mora is a well known guide in the area, and he does tours which are supposed to be wonderful.  We may stay in Otavalo or one of the surrounding villages for a day or two and visit Laguna de San Pablo, a very beautiful lake with spectacular views. We will arrange from the Secret Garden to also visit Parque Nacional Cotopaxi and, perhaps, even stay there to do some hiking and exploring. There are also hot springs near Quito which are supposed to be great. Another area in the highlands lead us to Ambato, where Alex's girlfriend, Daniela lives and works, both at the university and her family's bookstore. We hope to make it there on our way to Banos. It has also been suggested to us to do the Quilotoa Loop, visiting the Sunday market in Pujili, the Thursday market in Saquisali, and take in the incredible scenary going from village to village by bus. We don't have that many Thursdays and Sundays, but hopefully we can coordinate our plans to find some of the markets. We must also see the crater lake of Quilotoa, hiking in the area or renting horses. There are some special hostels in Chugchilan that cruisers have highly recommended to us. YOW!  I have so much more to do with the planning, and David is busy getting the stuff done which we both need to do. Bye for now;  I must get to work. I hope to know more before we really leave.