On Our Own

Last day as a team...

Started with leather town. Beautiful and expensive. Juanito must not have been too sick of us from yesterday because he came along with us again today. What a great guy! He put up with our shinanigans all day long. Leather town and wood town were not as successful as the Otavalo market for us. I suppose it was that way for everyone because multiple people asked to go back to Otavalo (more details to follow).

NEXT!!! Cuicocha. I distinctively remember before the trip started that we were told we would be going on a boat tour on a lake in an extinct volcano crater. Well, fun fact, Cuicocha is active! Even though it has not exploded for 3,000 years I felt it was a little risky tempting it like that. Boy o boy. The whole lake is filled by rain water. That is totally amazing considering the size of that honker! No fish live in the lake due to the sulfur and other gasses let off by the volcano. We got to see some of the gas emissions near the middle of the lake.

Front Of The Boat Was A Bad Choice Kalli

Back to Otavalo!!! Alicia stocked up on gifts and greatly improved her bargining skills. Our entire shopping crew was impressed. Lindsey, Alicia, and I all got Jaunito a gift for putting up with us all week. Then he discovered Alicia and I were staying longer. That sweetheart is going to spend the next day (maybe two), hanging out with us, being our tour guide. AMAZING! What a guy! He deserves something so much better than the hat.

Market

Made a pit stop on the way back to Quito and the equator. Took some rad pictures super quick, then loaded back up!

On Both Hemispheres At The Same Time

As soon as we got back to Kattys it was work, work, work. Getting all of the bags that the shoes and meds in consolidated. All of peoples things crammed into the bagged bags. Amy and Ross brought us dinner and came to bid our team farewell. It was a tearful goodbye for me (who is suprised???).

Katty, Alicia, and I had a big group snuggle after everyone left. Very comforting. Then, Juan's PaPa picked us up and took us to our Hotel Botique. Apparently in these things, anything and everything in them is for sale. Neat! It is beauiftul and fun!

Our Room From My Bed :)

Tomorrow we will be exploring the historic district of Quito with our professional tour guide Mr. Juan!!!

Side note - Jaunito is an aspiring reg-atone artist. He preformed for us last night. Awesome!