Photos- Day Trips from Quito (last batch for the trip)

On the Saturday we arrived, they took us on a short trip north of the Equator.

We had lunch on the edge of a volcanic caldera:



On the way, we passed a restaurant serving an Ecuadoran speciality: guinea pig



Despite being on the equator, the height of the mountains and the cloud cover made it quite cool.



Afterwards we went to the equatorial monument. This is where the French geographers determined the line to be. Unfortunately, GPS has shown that they were off by about 80 meters.



This is the actual line of the equator, which we went to on our second day trip from Quito.



(dad is standing between Nancy and Ed, with whom we spent the day touring)

I enjoyed much more, though, visiting a traditional bakery in Cayambe, with its wood-fired oven:



and hand-crafted pastries:



We had great views of the volcanic countryside near Otavalo:



From there we went to the famous Otavalo indigenous market,





And the people who worked there:







And here's where the locals ate:



We drove up to Cuicoche Lake National Park:



Where we had a great view of the Imbabura volcano and Otavalo beneath it:



From there we went to the leather goods center of Cotacachi so dad could buy a new wallet:



I particularly liked the views of the volcano:



While dad liked this graffiti (after I explained what it meant):



We went for lunch at Hacienda Cusin, an 18th-century inn and restaurant near Otavalo:



Dad really liked the flowers near our table: