Me Embracing the World

Me Embracing the World

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Crater, valley, vally, mesa (Otavalo, Ecuador)

So, as planned we woke up at 7 in the morning and headed out of our hostel down the crater bottom. An amazing crater lake, I'll post a link as soon as Ben puts the pictures up. After our steep ascent, we got the crazy idea that instead of catching a bus to our next destination, Chugchilán, we'd just walk with our packs, and guitars. What followed was an amazing 5 hour hike that turned, well, just rough, in the last two hours as we found ourselves climbing a thousand feet out of a STEEP canyon we had just killed our legs decending. All said though, for a skinny, out of shape, tall guy whose spent the last 3 months away from any excercise of any kind, it felt like quite an accomplishment and really made me feel empowered. On top of that, it was great to just change our plans and follow a whim, the energy of which kept us going really for most of the journey.

A word about Quilotoa. Its the one place that I've felt most welcomed so far on this trip. A small village of a hundred or so people, we stayed in a 'hostel', but it really was just this family's home. It was Freezing outside and we were enveloped in clouds, so me, ben, 2 Canadians, 2 Danish Girls, a spanish couple and some late comer Germans, spent the afternoon, inside, huddled around the family's wood stove, playing with their four children, especially this amazing 3 year old who could break-dance, I kid you not, and introduced me to Cholo Juanito and Richard Douglas, a musical duo for South American children. I just felt so welcomed that it really made the day, and highlighted the trip so far.

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