Another Day of Discovery

Wow! What a neat day..  It began as usual with a great breakfast, followed by our last Spanish lesson before we return to the States.. Of course, we will continue our Spanish education as soon as we return. You will see in today's pictures, our Spanish teacher.. Note the UCLA sweatshirt. She has been great.  Also in the pictures today, you will find our hotel manager, Franklin, a super gentleman that provides his guests the best possible service imaginable.

Around noon today, we took a taxi to Ibarra, a city about 30 minutes to the north of Cotacachi. This city is quite a bit bigger and has an unbelievable shopping center, Mall if you please.  We got a bit camera happy today, but all was so interesting we could not help it.  The road to Ibarra is a combination super highway, six lanes of traffic, and cobblestone streets. We now know a taxi driver by name, have his phone number, and use him whenever we can. You can go about anywhere by taxi or bus..  It is great not having a car - don't need one.

We had lunch in at the Supermaxi mall in a restaurant called Chaparral.  They are known to have good beef there.  The hamburger was okay but not as good as we had been told.  We took our time walking through the stores pricing items and trying to get a better idea of what to bring with us when we return.  We found it somehow comforting that there was a place to go where  there was a feeling similar to a small mall in the States.  It's great to be able to live away from all of these things and yet be close enough to find an item you may be want or need.  The down side of course to this is the prices are much higher than what you would pay in Cotacachi...closer to what we would pay in the States. There was a huge grocery store; an electronics store; small clothing shops; a huge housewares store; and many places to enjoy lunch or dinner.  We spent 3 hours there, making it another great day in Ecuador.

All the way back to Cotacachi we enjoyed the picturesque countryside, bordered on both sides of the highway by the volcanoes.  This place is so beautiful.

Arrived back at our hotel; the staff made us a big bowl of popcorn; and we enjoyed another movie.  The pictures attached tell only a small part of our journey today.

Christina, a teacher with great patience!

Franklin...always gracious and happy.

You can just barely make out the toll booth on the way to Ibarra.

Luscious fruits and vegetables.  Note the size of the Papaya on the end of the counter.  The Pineapple were $1.25 each.

An oasis in the desert!

Fresh octopus.  Doesn't it look tasty.

Here's looking at you!

Funky Fish, a perfect name for a shop just for teens.

Auto dealers everywhere.

Absolutely anything you may need/want in housewares.

Even Fisher-Price has a place in Ecuador.

Go shopping, get you car washed in the parking lot.  These are self-contained
car wash systems.

Of all the fast food places to choose to bring to Ibarra, KFC made the short list.

Ibarra was filled with car dealers.  We were told Mitsubishi is the car of choice.

They had Coke in 2.5 liter and 3.0 liter bottles.

We were fascinated with the play of the clouds over the peek of Cotacachi Volcano.  Photos never do this justice.