Otovalo, Ecuador

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Now, I'm not normally much of a market guy.  I visit the local markets to find cheap food and weird fruit, and I'll generally give the local market a look wherever I'm at.  But they don't usually grab me the way Otovalo's did.  So much color!  Shawls, blankets, sweaters, caps, and rugs, of every color imaginable laid out on tables, hung from anything that could me made to stand upright, and worn by the Quechua woman that were selling them.  The rugs, caps, and many others were knitted or sewn from wool or cotton, but what really captured my attention were the shawls, blankets, and sweaters sewn from alpaca wool.  Of the two days I spent in the market most of the time was spent picking through two or three foot piles of shawls or blankets, just as an excuse to touch them.  The place was a treat for more than just the eyes.

The natural setting for all this color was spectacular as well.  Surrounded by several volcanos, at least one seemed to visible no matter which street I turned down.  Imbabura was the closest, and with the lower slopes a patchwork of fields and the 4,500m summit perpetually hidden in it's own personal cloud, it was the perfect background to the color and noise of the market plaza.  I spent the final day in town out of town, at the foot of this volcano enjoying a local waterfall, walking alongside sheep, cows, and pigs on the side of a gorgeous high mountain lake, and watching a small local soccer match.

Otovalo, a great introduction to Ecuador

Puente de las Americas

We went for a trip to the puente de las americas.  The main bridge over the canal.  Not really a tourist spot, but it gives good views of the canal so we went to take photos.  Turned into a real hastle.  Buses aren't allowed to stop anywhere near the bridge because its the trans american highway and not just some city street.  After asking around we found one bus driver who would drop us off, but then we had to manage our own way back.  We walked out along the bridge as far as we could ignoring the honks and warnings from passing vehicles (ayudantes were hanging out of the buses waving (I assumed warning us to turn back), but eventually the "walking" path we were on ended completely and there would have been nothing between us and the interamericana.  Took our photos and turned back.  

Eventually a hotel van full of tourists stopped at the lookout point and were negotiated a ride back.  The driver wanted $10 a piece to take us back to city center where we could hop a bus.  We talked him down to $1 but only for a ride right to the other side of the bridge (interamericana highway).  Sure enough he dropped us off right on the side of the highway.  No sidewalk, mayber 2-3 feet of shoulder and a busy highway next to us.  He didn't even wait for an exit.  What a dick.  We walked a ways, found an exit and walked some more.  Found a fallen coconut and then a random machete on the side of the road.  So we did what anyone would do when they find both a coconut and a machete on the side of the the road. We chopped open the coconut and drank some (it was not good).  Got stopped by a cop who told us we were going to get robbed walking around that neighborhood like that.  He flagged down some empty bus and told the driver to take us to the main bus terminal.  20 minutes later and one free bus ride, we were there.

Not smoothly done, but at least we made it to the bridge and got our photos.  Good day!

The Black Forest

After a quick few days in Esteli I skipped town and headed to the cloud forests outside Matagalpa, Nicaragua.  The only real access to the few existing trails in the area are from the finca at Selva Negra.  Nestled in the forested mountain slopes of the same name, the finca has both a working coffee plantation and a hotel/restaurant on it's grounds.  And what a hotel!  More of a resort really.  If anyone feels like getting married, or maybe a nice family reunion some time (hint), this'd be the place to do it.  Just beautiful.  Next time we do a reunion, this is my suggestion.  I figure if we all have to fly anyway, why not Nicaragua?  Plus the rooms are cheaper...

The surrounding hillsides are accessible through a web of well maintained trails.  Not a huge number of trails, but definitely enough for several good days of hiking.  I really don't mind hiking the same trails repeatedly though, so it would be easy to spend a week in the area.  Supposedly they have quetzals and mountain lions in the area.  I had to settle for howler monkeys and toucans.  Oh and agoutis.  Oh and tree frogs.  Freaking tree frogs!  Awesome.  I had to go out in the middle of the night with a flashlight to find them, but a couple of hours of checking all the bromeliads I could reach and I found a few.  Kinda plain, tiny, brown ones.  But hey, they were still tree frogs living in bromeliads!  It's just a matter of time before I find a red-eyed tree frog, or poison dart frog.  To that end, I went a bought a mirror when I got to Grenada which I'll tie to the end of branch so I can see into bromeliads up above my head.  That should increase my chances a bit.

Oh and if Governor Richardson is reading this, the owner, Eddy Kuhl, asked me to say hi for him.  Apparently he wrote a book which, in part, mentions your grandfather here in Matagalpa.

El Salvador

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Twelve days is too short a time to try and take in a country, but even that required an inner struggle against the half of me that desperately wants to get to South America sometime in this lifetime.  I know it isn't fair, but I just have to say it.  I liked Guatemala better.  Granted it had 7 weeks to grow on me, and Xela had really started to feel a little like home, but I just liked it better.

El Salvador doesn't have the smoking volcanoes or gorgeous lakes, or the Mayan ruins like Guatemala.  Mostly though, I just miss the friends I had made there.  Because, while they may not be smoking, El Salvador does have to truly massive, volcanoes outside San Salvador and San Miguel (and others that I didn't see).  It does have at least one nice lake at Suchitoto where I spent three days relaxing and enjoying the view.  It has some excellent beaches, though the half of me that wants to go south south south, got the better of me and I only visited one.  But that one treated me very well.  Treated me to one of the most amazing lightning storms I can remember seeing.  And finally, El Salvador has several striking museums about the recent civil war.

El Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen in San Salvador and the Museo de la Revolucion Salvadoreno in Perquin were each filled with old black and white photos of guerillas, activist, and others from the war, along with descriptions of each.  The Museo de la Revolucion, in particular, was quite moving.  Mostly because Marcos, the man watching on duty while I was there, took the time to talk to me, in spanish, about many of the photos on display.  He had been a fighter for the FMLM thoughout the war and knew many of the faces in the photos personally.  Men and women that had died in the war.  Speaking to someone who knew them, knew there names, and was friends some of them, gave the faces in the photos life in a much more emotional way.

Oh and papusas.  El Salvador has papusas and I really, really like papusas.