Crater Lakes and Shopping

Day 4:

We had an all day outing. The bus picked us up at 8:30 a.m. and we headed out of Quito. It was raining, which is the weather we expected, but ironically even though the weather channel said that we had a 60 percent chance of rain the entire trip, this was their first day of rain in seven months.

On our way out of town, we stopped to have bizcocho and cheese. The bizcocho was like a weird type of shortbread cookie with a distinct taste and the cheese was similar to a mozzarella.

Our first stop was Cotochachi, which was a crater lake. Because of the rain, only me, Kristin and two others decided to take the boat ride out to see the sulfer bubbles from the crater. It was cool to see the lava rock along the way and it was very cold out on the boat. When we returned to the dock, we each were given a warm cup of lemon juice, and then the woman passing them out, poured some alcohol into it. The warm spiked juice mix was a nice treat, especially since it was so cold out.

After loading back in the bus, we headed to a leather town and had the chance to shop for leather goods. Neither Kristin nor I purchased anything in this town.

Then we headed to Otavalo and shopped at the Indian Market. This was so much fun. We were able to purchase items for ourselves, as well as our family and friends back home! We were able to barter with the people to get crazy low prices on things.

When we got back to the volunteer house at Center #2, we watched a slide show of pictures from the history of the Working Boys Center. It was amazing to see how the center has grown over the years.

We then had a taco dinner, which was one of the volunteer’s favorite meals. I’d have to agree, it was my favorite meal here so far! We came back to the hotel early and Kristin tried to resolve some issues with Verizon and let me say, she is not very happy with Verizon at all!!