If I thought 3rd world taxi rides were exciting, I had yet to ride a bus in the mountains in Ecuador. These bus drivers take handle hairpin turns at breakneck speeds without seeming to bat an eye. Meanwhile there’s a good 500m (about 1500 ft.) drop about 1.5m to the right.
Yet we did see some AMAZING scenery. For a good portion of the ride we saw various views of Nevado Cayambe (18933 ft.) , a volcano that sits on the equator. It’s a classic cone volcano, snow capped, and the third tallest in Ecuador. Also we met some UNC students on the bus who were studying at a Spanish school in Quito. However, they would only talk to us in Spanish.
In what Neil and I are quickly realizing is just how lots of things will get done on this trip, the manner of arranging our bus ride was rather unsystematic. After scouring our guidebook, we couldn’t really figure out how to get to Otavalo. So we just set out this morning and started walking, vaguely thinking that we might should go to the big bus station on the south side of town. Raulito said we should go to “Occidental,” and we couldn’t figure out if this was a street, a bus station, whatever. A little walking and a taxi ride later, we found ourselves on the dropped off on the side of a highway…apparently this was “Occidental.” Not until we saw some the UNC students flagging down a bus headed for Ibarra (a town further north of Otavalo) did we really know how in the world we were going to get to Otovalo.
(These pictures come from Google image searches)
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