We´ve been having pretty quiet adventures this week. It´s been all about a leisurely drive through Ecuador. Nothing is very far away, the people are chill, and we´ve been here long enough that we feel like we have it figured out (two whole weeks!). After we left Guaranda, we went north a few hours to drive around the famous Quilotoa Loop. This is a loop of road just south of Quito, high in the mountains, and fairly isolated because of the bad condition of the road.
The scenery was spectacular. Every mountainside, no matter how steep, had small farms and sheep and sheepherders just barely clinging to it. I really don´t know how they don´t all slide off. It boggles the mind.
We stayed at a small posada, that we happened upon just as dark was falling. Well, maybe it was a bit after, and we´d already spent a harrowing hour driving in the dark, with headlights that just barely work and smell like burning electricity when they do, not knowing where we would spend the night. But maybe it was just as dark was falling. 8) We were greeted in the driveway by Magdalena, one of the owners, and her son, Pablo. We agreed to camp, and they invited us in to sit by the fire and drink some tea. It was practically like being at home!!
The posada is also a working farm, and they have all kinds of fascinating old machinery still running. Douglas was most taken with the antique shower that runs on alcohol. You pour in 1/3 of a cup of alcohol, start the water, and light it on fire. If you let the water just barely dribble out, it gets pretty hot. Not my favorite shower ever, but I think it just might be Douglas´ all-time-favorite. In the top 5 at least.
We got to check out the cow milking, the llama riding, the water-powered turbine. And we were treated to the fabulous fresh-made-on-the-farm food, from cheese to yogurt flavored with coconut to fresh eggs. It was fantastic. Needless to say, we decided to stay one more night and take a hike down to Lago Quilotoa. We also got to attend our first ever dinner party entirely in spanish - there were a 4 other travellers there, and the best common language was spanish, with occasional bits of english and italian thrown in (the finnish woman didn´t try to say anything to us in finnish).
All in all, one of our favorite places.
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