Quito was too old.
We stayed in the old part of Quito (hotel san Francisco de Quito) wednesday,11.07, till Friday, 13.07.07. Basically the city has two main attractions, the first is the churches the second is armed guards. The city is the capital of Ecuador and it is full with armed guards who are everywhere, seriously, every shop and I mean every shop has a guard and depending on what’s in the shop that’s how heavy the guard is equipped. On top of the guards there is something like 6 different government forces, army, police etc. in one way u feel safe on the other way u think why do they need to have so many guards, is it so bad, is it worse than Jerusalem, cant b. the explanation that we got from our host in Otavalo is that the government wants to keep the criminals off the streets by giving them jobs as security people.
The other link to Jerusalem and to my neighborhood in Tel Aviv (synagogues on every corner) is the high concentration of churches, I mean very high! Every second building is a church, at some point u start thinking that it all really happened, I mean after seeing so many pictures of Jesus being crucified and then being taken off the cross…u think wow… that must b true (that’s reminds of this hilarious shuttle bus driver that came to pick us from the hotel in Auckland, every second sentence he said "True?" he just killed me) u just surrounded by that reality and u start believing in it.
On Friday morning I was pretty much exhausted and the jet leg plus the high altitude, 1850 m, made me sick.
After almost three days in Quito we took a taxi on Friday noon to Otavalo, where we are now. We did the trip together with Leah’s parents and got ourselves excellent accommodation at Ali Shunga. We got a very nice flat for all of us which we shared until today in the after noon.
Otavalo is about two hours from Quito and its know for its extensive Saturday market. As good shoppers we woke up early, 06.15 am, and started our tour at the animal market, then moved to the craft part, fruit and vegetable and finished in the craft. I telling u its hard to shop for ten hours in a row, u get tired from bargaining the whole day. I enjoy bargaining but this one was not easy. I think the most interesting part was the animal market where farmers bring their animals to trade for other animals and money. The market itself is in a mud field with different sections, pigs, cows, sheep etc. The most problematic animals were the pigs, they did not want to move, I mean they were not happy being sold. So some of them did all they could to stay put, including trying to escape, screaming and leaning forward while bending their feet.
Any way now one can understand why Jews don’t eat ham, the trade is too hard.
On Sunday, 16.07.07, we went on a lovely trek, called Cuicocha laguna. We were only suppose to do some of it because of my and Felicity’s altitude issues but eventually we did all of it in a record time of five hours. The recommended time was five including another hour walk along the road which we managed to skip by our great taxi driver Wilson and Sidney’s talent in catching a lift all the way to the meeting point with the taxi. The trek itself goes around the laguna which is centered by two small islands in the middle. It was definately worth the effort, beautiful scenery.
Any way, have to go to bed, update soon Eran Sofer
We stayed in the old part of Quito (hotel san Francisco de Quito) wednesday,11.07, till Friday, 13.07.07. Basically the city has two main attractions, the first is the churches the second is armed guards. The city is the capital of Ecuador and it is full with armed guards who are everywhere, seriously, every shop and I mean every shop has a guard and depending on what’s in the shop that’s how heavy the guard is equipped. On top of the guards there is something like 6 different government forces, army, police etc. in one way u feel safe on the other way u think why do they need to have so many guards, is it so bad, is it worse than Jerusalem, cant b. the explanation that we got from our host in Otavalo is that the government wants to keep the criminals off the streets by giving them jobs as security people.
The other link to Jerusalem and to my neighborhood in Tel Aviv (synagogues on every corner) is the high concentration of churches, I mean very high! Every second building is a church, at some point u start thinking that it all really happened, I mean after seeing so many pictures of Jesus being crucified and then being taken off the cross…u think wow… that must b true (that’s reminds of this hilarious shuttle bus driver that came to pick us from the hotel in Auckland, every second sentence he said "True?" he just killed me) u just surrounded by that reality and u start believing in it.
On Friday morning I was pretty much exhausted and the jet leg plus the high altitude, 1850 m, made me sick.
After almost three days in Quito we took a taxi on Friday noon to Otavalo, where we are now. We did the trip together with Leah’s parents and got ourselves excellent accommodation at Ali Shunga. We got a very nice flat for all of us which we shared until today in the after noon.
Otavalo is about two hours from Quito and its know for its extensive Saturday market. As good shoppers we woke up early, 06.15 am, and started our tour at the animal market, then moved to the craft part, fruit and vegetable and finished in the craft. I telling u its hard to shop for ten hours in a row, u get tired from bargaining the whole day. I enjoy bargaining but this one was not easy. I think the most interesting part was the animal market where farmers bring their animals to trade for other animals and money. The market itself is in a mud field with different sections, pigs, cows, sheep etc. The most problematic animals were the pigs, they did not want to move, I mean they were not happy being sold. So some of them did all they could to stay put, including trying to escape, screaming and leaning forward while bending their feet.
Any way now one can understand why Jews don’t eat ham, the trade is too hard.
On Sunday, 16.07.07, we went on a lovely trek, called Cuicocha laguna. We were only suppose to do some of it because of my and Felicity’s altitude issues but eventually we did all of it in a record time of five hours. The recommended time was five including another hour walk along the road which we managed to skip by our great taxi driver Wilson and Sidney’s talent in catching a lift all the way to the meeting point with the taxi. The trek itself goes around the laguna which is centered by two small islands in the middle. It was definately worth the effort, beautiful scenery.
Any way, have to go to bed, update soon Eran Sofer
