New Country, New Adventures | Quito & Otavalo

We are now in another big city, Quito in Ecuador. With all the traveling, sometimes Tim and I just want to relax and enjoy our downtime. Of course, though it's downtime we are still "working" or studying. One of our favorite things to do is go to cafes and work, and that's exactly what we did our first day here.

We went to a cafe called Cafe Jaru near the main part of the city. I kid you not, when we walked in, there were only ASIANS in the cafe (specifically Koreans)! We were so surprised because we rarely see Asian people. This cafe was super cute and very modern. I loved all the decals and little details in their interior design.

Reminds me of a Bible verse (Proverbs 14:13)

Today, we decided to explore the surrounding small town, Otavalo - which is about an 2-hour motorbike ride from Quito. (If you need to rent a bike in Quito, you can go to Freedom Bike Rentals, it was a decent price to rent the bike for a day. Again, I'm sorry I don't remember the exact price, but they're very friendly there and only thing they ask is an $1,000 credit deposit, in case of any damages to the bike).

This town is known for their amazing mercado (market) with lots of goods/crafts from the indigenous people who live in that town. We walked by it, but didn't pay anything since we are backpacking for the next 4 months and we don't want to carry anything more than we have to. 

We did, however, find an amazing restaurant called Antojados Restaurante, and had one of the best meals so far AND it was only $2.50 each person for consome (barley soup) and pollo al jugo (chicken rice plate) plus a drink! How awesome is that?! It was the perfect amount of food for us.

After lunch, we walked around the town. There were so many indigenous people walking around and I really wanted to take a photo of them, but I was too afraid. Also, I knew that it was best to ask them if it's okay to take a photo of them. Due to my lack of Spanish, I knew it was impossible for me to do so. It really sucks, but hopefully I will be able to learn some basics to get by and be able to communicate with the locals here that I am a photographer.

Otavalo also has beautiful mountains and lots of nature around it. We decided to visit Cascada de Peguche. It was a little tough to find it at first, we got lost and drove up a hill on a very bumpy road. Luckily, some of the local kids playing on the street told us that we had to go back down the hill and turn into another street. Eventually we found it and it was hidden within a small village-like road. They were also doing construction on the road at that time too, so that made it harder for us to figure out exactly where the entrance was.

This was the entrance to the small village/street that you will need to go through to get to the waterfall park.

There are a few shops, selling random goods.

 Here is the entrance. You can see that they were redoing the road here. It was free to visit the waterfall, they do ask for a donation and there's a box there you can put money in.

 Cascada de Peguche

My model 😍

On our way back, we drove by tons of rose farms and more general flower farms. Then we drove by a few people selling flowers on the road.

Can you believe? For a dozen of roses, it's $2.50 per bundle!! How cheap is that!! Tim was super excited and had to take a photo and buy a bunch. Best deal ever!! 

Ecuador, you amaze me.

Until next time...

~ Lynna