El Fin de semaña-Otavalo/Cotopaxi

Sat morning took a 2 hour bus for only $2 to Otavalo.. famous for having a huge market on saturdays!

As you can see in the pic.. its the entrance to the town! Natialie is left, linda in the middle and me on the right!

I aquired all my traveling jewelry, but not much else, as i really have no space to carry anything..

the girls splashed out and got loads of handicraft stuff.. it was a wicked day out, and the last with natalie.. before she set off for the Jungle!

SUnday... finally after much debate on what i am going to get upto this weekend.. i had the options of climb Illineza, or cotopaxi, go mountain biking on cotopaxi, or a day of horse riding..

I collected the itinararies for all the trips, and straight away had to discard the climb up cotopaxi, as i didnt have one of the items on the "necessary equipment" list... take a look and quess what it is. (hint: no;4)

I finally decided on the cotopaxi bikes..

Started in the early morning, we were driven in a landrover for about 2 hours to the national park.. we stopped in a small village on the way to pic up some supplies for the journey... and then at "the farm" to pick up bikes!

Lots of beautiful views of course driving through the national park..but considering its a huge tourst attraction like the mital del mund.. there were no signs. just a dodgy dirt traack.. which lead to a very bumpy ride, so much so, that i managed to break the crocodile clip in my hair when my head hit the roof on a bump!

We drove about half way up, and parked the car.. about 4500m, and walked up to the refuge from there. It is at 4800m. We left one of the 2 tour guides with us, to cook lunch for our return.

We then carried on walking up another 200m... will we fianlly reached the glacier!!!! at 5000m!

(me and the guide Eran)

below.. the group...

Unfortunatly it was very cloudy when we got there... but luckily

when we got to the car again.. we finally saw the summit.

Once at the bottom the adventure continued and we got on the mountain bikes and cycled down.. it was crazy fast and the road was ultra bumpy!

I am ashamed to say i managed to fall off twice!

but it was great!

When i finally reached the bottom.. there was a laguna, and we saw wild horses,lamas, and bulls.

and finally.... the journey home was an adventure in itself! The motorway was packed with traffic.. and ppl round here.. instead of staying on the correct side of the road, use all the lanes bar 1 on the opposite side.. but we still werent moving.. so we took the country road route.. let down the tyres a bit,, and off we went!! the car on a 30 degree angle sideways!! CRAZY but AMAZING WEEKEND!!!