Quito - Latacunga / Saquisilí - Baños

We spent our last day in Quito exploring the bits of Old Town that we'd missed (too busy gawking at Kofi Annan). In the afternoon we went to the New Town, passing some sort of student demonstration on the way, but we couldn't make out what they were complaining about (top-up fees? ;).

I selfishly went to the cinema to watch Matrix Revolutions (in English, with Spanish subtitles) - which I enjoyed far more than the previous effort, but not as much as the original -, while Katherine sat outside reading Wuthering Heights. Poor girl!

The next day (Wednesday) we caught the bus from Quito to Latacunga, a small town a couple of hours south. There's nothing particularly exciting about Latacunga, although it has a nice central square - we were really there to visit the indigenous market that takes place in the tiny town of Saquisilí (try pronouncing that!) nearby early on Thursday morning.

And visit we did. The Saquisilí market is, according to Ecuadorean economists, the most important one of its kind in the country, and you can tell why. Literally every street and square of the small town is filled with people - and since it's intended for Ecuadoreans rather than gringos it's somewhat more authentic: less arts-and-crafts and more food, clothing and raw materials. We didn't make any big purchases - just looking around was interesting enough -, but I invested in a coco frío (at least, that's what the Venezuelans call them; an unripe coconut with the top lopped off, into which you stick and straw and drink); some freshly fried fish (better than Bimbis); and some deep-fried bananas in batter. Just writing about it makes me feel hungry!

There's not much else in the area. Latacunga is a nice enough place, and the horizon around it is dotted with (active!) volcanoes, but most days were pretty cloudy, so we didn't get to see much.

Back in Latacunga, Katherine bought herself a new watch. She lost her old one, and we had been on the look-out for some time. (We had almost bought one in Bogotá duty-free, but they didn't take Visa, bah!). In the end she decided on an 'ultra-stylish' little black one. Price: $3.20.

Jealous of Katherine's new watch, I bought myself a "Brick-Game", a plastic little battery-powered thing that blurts out tinny tunes and has eighteen versions of Tetris. Katherine in particular is no doubt delighted that I spend every waking hour lining up falling bricks etc. Price: $1.50.

On the way back to our hotel in Latacunga we couldn't resist buying some queso de hoja from the bakery next door. It's a stringy kind of white cheese (hence queso), and - for whatever reason - comes wrapped up in a big green leaf (hence de hoja). It's also very nice, on a par with Venezuelan queso de mano (which, unsurprisingly, does not come wrapped up in a hand... :)

And so we moved on to Baños, which will probably now be synonymous with Katherine jumping off her bike ... but shouldn't be, because it's been a very nice place to spend the last ten days in!