Sunday, January 22, 2017

Ecuador-Thursday, December 29th: Baños-Guamote-Guaranda

We enjoyed our last morning at the beautiful cliff house in baños. 
The girls enjoyed hanging out in the hammocks to work on journals and seminary together.
We again purchased fresh bread from the baker that drives through town for breakfast. It is such a yummy treat, everyone especially enjoyed the nutella that Mom purchased to put on the rolls.
Preston helped mom make scrambled eggs to go with the fresh rolls.
We made a couple stops in town before heading out. Going to get smashed pennies (Nickles actually at this one) at the hot springs and see the waterfall that comes into town. 
We found a chocolate empanadas stand also to try. It had been on our list but we hadn't gotten them yet and we're glad we did. So yummy.
A lot it the day was spent driving. It was about 2 ½ hours to get to Guamote. There were some amazing views of the volcano and farming lands along the way. 
And we saw a lot of people hauling their goods on their backs.
Some on their way to or from the markets.
The locals would pile up in trucks or big buses to come from towns near and far.
Guamote has an open air indigenous market on Thursdays.  I wanted to experience the cultural aspect of seeing a traditional market and this was indeed that. 
There were pigs and sheep every where and piles of produce, chicken, fish, bread…everything being sold. It was not a touristy place, so we stuck out being the only white people walking around. 
We tried to be respectful, or at least sneaky about getting pictures of things and places there. 
They were staring at us as much as we were at them though. The kids didn't seem to care about it as much as the adults did, but I loved it and enjoyed walking around.
So much to see
as we wandered around I was surprised every time to turn a corn and see more tents set up.  It was huge.
And the people are beautiful
each tribe has a different hat style and clothing
From there we drove about 2 more hours to Guaranda. It was another pretty drive up (14,500 feet was our highest point) next to Chimborazo. 
We loved seeing all the vicuña on the side of the road. Kids did well with the drives. They love the connect game that grandma taught them and tinkered with backpack toys or slept.
Once we got to our hotel the boys had some energy to burn. There was a small playground on the property that I took them to before dinner. Dinner was good, but there were t.v.s playing kid's movies and the kids were glued with tired glazed over eyes. Everything came with potatoes, rice and salad. So all the adult were full after their own meals.

No comments: