Ecuador and Back: Living it up at La Mirage

The hotel where we are staying is actually outside Otovalo, in a town called Cotacachi. It was a hacienda, and then converted to a hotel. Andrei and I walked the grounds this morning, and could not believe how much there was to see, considering we're a 10 minute walk from downtown. There are horses, llamas and chickens in various fields and pens, and five peacocks roaming the grounds.

It's really quite unique here...last night at dinner, we had an extra dinner companion - Javier...

He came with little tent card that said "Hi, I am Javier and your dinner companion for the evening but please do not feed me."

The dinners here really have a flair for presentation - check out our little 'mini appetizer' (don't ask me what it was - I have no idea, but it was pretty good, and involved quinona - which is a local grain). It arrived in a wooden music box, playing the theme from Phantom of the Opera.

Breakfast is served in a little building that overlooks the lawn, where we watched the peacocks. When we arrived for breakfast, there was a fire in the fireplace, and a table set for two. Since we were the only ones here, we knew it was for us! A platter of fresh fruit, three wheels of cheese, a tray of breads (awesome croissants and strawberry jam!), and a meat platter (ick). Fresh soursop juice (interesting, Andrei had that one, and has had it with blackberry juice in a drink that he calls the Ecuadorian strawberry dacquiri), or fresh passionfruit juice. Then, she asks us if we want cereal, waffles, pancakes or eggs...A Feast! Oh, and of course, hot chocolate - Ecuador make the best hot chocolate...always steamed milk, none of that hot water stuff.

Andrei rigged the camera to take a shot of us on the steps facing the lawn. No tripod or any tall flat surface - he totally winged it using the base of a fence surrounding the garden - it took a few test shots to get it right.

Jose (our guide) picked us up at 9:00, and we went for a hike at the Cuicacha Crater. It's a volcanic crater, and the lake was formed from glacial runoff. It's 600 feet deep, and has no sources of water other than rain. It's still considered active, and sometimes bubbles appear. There are a few cracks in the bottom, and whenever there's an earthquake in the country, the water level drops. We didn't hike the whole loop (that takes 4-5 hours), we only did about 45 minutes. We started at about 8600 feet, and climbed to 10,004 - a new personal best for Andrei and I!

Toured a couple local towns, one is known for their woodcarving, the other for its weaving. In San Antonio, the whole square is surrounded by shops and galleries of woodcarvers. One guy had this huge (3') shrimp, and life-sized crocodiles and armadillos - amazing craftsmanship. In the second town (no clue what the name was) we visited a weaver named Jose Cotacachi - an amazing craftsman! He dyes all his own wools, and weaves them on an old-fashioned manual loom. He showed us how there is this one kind of worm that lives on a type of cactus. When the worm is dried and squished, it creates a red ink - add lemon juice an it turns a shade of orange; add baking soda and it turns purple. He also uses black walnuts and sulphur to create other colors. Bought an awesome alpaca wool sweater for myself as a souvenier.