This past weekend, Stella and I took our first mini vacation to Otavalo, Ecuador. We stayed in a hostal called Rose Cottage, which I highly recommend!! The food wasn't the best that we've had, but the view was worth the trade off in freezing rooms and bad food. We left Santo Domingo on Friday for Quito, where we stayed at the same hostel that we stayed at our first night in South America. Megan recommended that we go to La Ronda while we were in Quito for supper, and I am so glad that she did. This was the first location in Ecuador that we felt safe staying out after dark. We ate at a wonderful restaurant called La Primera Casa and then walked up and down La Ronda, stopping in the different shops. And did I mention there were tons of places to get dessert...You better believe these "chicas dulces" (as they call us at the clinic) had some delicious Ecuadorian desserts! We also had a fantastic taxi driver that took us to La Ronda and offered to pick us up when we were ready to go back to the hostal in Quito. Not only did he take us to and fro, but he acted as a tour guide as we passed by buildings and different regions of Quito. On the way back, he even went out of the way to stop at the Basilica (a beautiful cathedral) and took a picture for us.
Saturday we took a bus to Otavalo and went to Rose Cottage. When we hiked up the driveway, we were absolutely speechless at how beautiful the view was. We were completely surrounded by the Andes. It was so majestic, one of the most beautiful pieces of art God painted. After we finally got over the shock of beauty and checked in to Rose Cottage, we went to the market in Plaza de los Ponchos. We were there for several hours, and still did not see all of it. Everything was so, so, so beautiful and cheap! We felt guilty bartering with some of the people because we knew how much time and effort was put in to each piece, but it was definitely customary to haggle. Sunday morning, we decided to take it easy and just hang out in the hammocks that were all around the grounds at Rose Cottage. We talked with out families on Skype and did some much needed leisurely reading before we headed back to Santo Domingo.
Possibly the best part of this vacation was the 5-6 hour bus ride from Otavalo to Santo Domingo. Because the bus was full, we got to sit right beside the bus driver on a huge padded area that covered the motor. Not only did this allow us to spread our things out without the worry of someone stealing it, but we were able to take phenomenal pictures of the mountains. I literally ran down both batteries for my camera in one weekend (one of which was used completely on the bus ride). Unfortunately, I cannot explain in words how amazing the scenery is on the road from Otavalo to Santo Domingo (which includes Quito), and the pictures will never come close to showing the Andes incredible beauty. I hope you enjoy these couple of photos of the view at Rose Cottage. There will be more pictures to follow at some point...I have several to sift through ;) !
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