San Antonio de Ibarra, Ibarra, Otavalo

We had a warm goodbye with our hacienda friends and took off for another day with our guide, Andres. We headed to San Antonio de Ibarra, a sweet little town that specializes in woodworking with a particular type of wood that is native to the area. We happened upon dancers in the main square doing the Ecuadorian equivalent of the hora. Then we headed to Andres’ grandparents’ hometown of Ibarra, where we hit his favorite ice cream shop. Somehow Talia convinced him to order us all lemon popsicles followed by huge cups of ice cream. So that was lunch!

From Ibarra, we headed to Otavalo, the home of the area’s largest indigenous market. Talia picked out a few gifts for friends and we did a horrible job of bargaining. After the market, we stopped by an indigenous cemetery to see the flowers left during Day of the Dead remembrances (and in anticipation of this, we watched Disney’s Coco last week).

Finally, we headed to a hotel that Kyla found online when we checked out of the hacienda-of-no-plumbing. The new hotel was AMAZING: gorgeous views of volcanos and a beautiful (and functional!) bathroom. We had less than 24 hours at the new hotel, but we crammed in some archery and another beautiful horseback ride. We are now back in Olon until we fly back to the US for Thanksgiving at the end of November.Read more