Fuya Fuya and Otavalo!

a view from the top of Fuya Fuya



halfway to the top


Us at the top of Fuya Fuya


EL LECHERO...beautiful tree that overlooks lake san pablo


The city of Otavalo from above


Lilli with our new travel guitar we bought at the market!





views of the saturday market in otavalo, note dave´s height compared to the locals!



view of the city center of Otavalo, with imbaburra in the backround!


sweet! fireplace at our hostel!


Dave´s awesome sunburn



more views of the lake


Lilli chillin at our hostel in Otavalo


La Laguna Cuicocha

Aight, its the Hopper writing this one so it is going to be short and sweet. Robin is looming over my shoulder making sure that it doesn´t fall short.
The story left off in Mindo, with us having conquered two waterfalls and having just met some chill folk who were expats. We took off from Mindo for Otavalo, one of the best known artisan locales in Ecuador. Every Saturday, thousands of vendors come to sell their wares, pets, and food to other Ecuadorians and tourists. It was pretty overwhelming as we left our hostel at 8 am and didn`t return until 12 pm. We had a blast dealing with vendors and seeing all the different types of products we could buy, from clothes to watches to sunglasses to shrunken heads! We were able to find a guitar as well from a friendly local artist who sold us the shredder for 30 bucks.
After the event, we took a short, actually turned out to be long, hike to Lago San Pablo, one of the largest natural lakes in Ecuador. Pretty cool but on the return we visited El Lechero, a famed spiritual tree located between Otavalo and the lake. It was a pretty magical place as the tree stood out on a hill with nothing surrounding it and had big, ole Mt Imbabura standing watch in the background.
Before all of this (I like to be similar to Quinto Terintito with none sequential stories), we took off for Laguna Cuicocha, a crater lake in the shadow of Cotacachi. We stayed at this cute hostel called El Mirador, which looks out on the lake and the beautiful peak of Cotacachi. Our second day there, we hiked around the lake for 11k (about 8 miles) and had some amazing views of the surrounding valley. We were pretty wiped out after the hike and decided to go for a short jaunt the following day. All in all, a great place and we had a ton of fun being out in nature.
So, we returned to Otavalo, did the market, and today summited a peak that is 13,900 ft! Booyyyaaaa! Our guide, Pablo, was a worker at the hostel we have been staying at. A very friendly guy who took us up the short walk to the summit. Lil and I both had a bit of exhausation wash over us due to the lack of oxygen but it was quite a lot of fun. We summited andhad returned to the trailhead around 11 so we cruised over to another lake, had some lunch, spoke in Spanish and called it a trip. When we got back into town, we both needed a nap but we rallied to write this blog and get ready for tomorrow and farming time! We are both super excited and will keep you all informed as the journey progresses. Much love and be well!

Da Hoppa