Furniture shopping in Ecuador

Last Saturday, Suzy´s boyfriend (Marcello) invited the two of us to go with him to Ibarra, a town about 2 hours north of Quito that is known for its woodwork and beautiful furniture. Marcello just moved to a new apartment and he was looking for a new bedroom set.

We started driving at about 8 in the morning (early!) and started heading towards this mountain, Cotopaxi Volcano.

Now, I have ridden in cars and buses in Latin America before and I braced myself for the.... unpredictability of other drivers but I can safely say I had never been passed by another car while passing a car until I came to Ecuador! I wish I could have snapped a pic but I was too shocked the first time it happened and then it slowly became normal. And those roads were curvy!

About an hour outside of Quito, we passed by some fruit stands in Guaylabamba and Suzy bought a bag of chimoyas. You split them open and they look like this. You pull out the little triangle pieces and chew on them and then spit out the pits. It tasted strangely like juicy bubblegum. I could only eat about half of mine before the twisty roads and sweetness got to my tummy. But it was good!

Soon after, we stopped at the equator. There are many information points set up along the equator and this was definately one of the more serious, scientific sites, unlike the Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the world) that apparently has toilets flushing and spinning eggs to show you the difference on each side of the equator. I can´t wait to go there! This marker had been determined by GPS and a very serious researcher gave us a lecture on how it was the correct line unlike the Mitad del Mundo. Here is a pic of Suzy and Marcello straddling the line and then Suzy and me (the beauty queen arms were her idea- I swear!)

And a much better view of Cotopaxi. Cotopaxi is the largest active volcano in Ecuador and one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. The last major eruption was in 1904 but some activity was recorded in 1975. It´s summit can be seen from most points in Quito.

Suzy had brought along a little book of chistes para ninos or ´jokes for children´. I couldn´t hear too many of them from the backseat but I think most were along the lines of my favorite made-up joke when I was little- ´Why did the chicken put his feet in the fire? To dry off his toenail polish!´ Apparently I thought I was hilarious. But really, they didn´t make ANY sense.

We stopped at a little cafe to buy bizcochos and look around.

When we got to Ibarra, we started looking at furniture. There was a network of streets with showrooms surrounding the pretty town square.

I split up with them and bought a few wooden handicrafts. Unfortunately, I stopped taking photos at this point. After shopping, we went to a local chain restaurant called Mr. Chancho (Mr. Pig). I ate some very typical comida including toasted corn, boiled corn mash, potatoes and, of course, roasted pork. I had been lucky so far but my tummy couldn´t handle all those new foods so I got sick later that night and into Sunday, knocking out my plans to explore some neighborhoods in Quito. As an extranjera (foreigner), I don´t think it´s really a matter of if you´ll get sick, but when. Oh well, it´s all part of the experience!

Yesterday afternoon, my co-workers invited me to join them in a game of volleyball so we drove to a park high above Quito. Here´s a view of the city in the afternoon sun and, of course, Cotopaxi.

This Sunday, my first group will be flying in from Georgia and I´ll be meeting them at the airport with Daniel. They´ll stay the night in Quito and then we´ll fly to Manta early Monday morning and take a bus for about an hour and a half to Tosagua, a very tiny town near the coast. We´ll be there until next Sunday. I´ll be taking lots of pics so expect another post in about a week and a half.

Until then, ciao!