SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 2015 - OCTAVALO MARKET & QUITO, ECUADOR/LIMA, PERU

Today, we experienced visiting the Otavalo Market, undoubtedly one of the best in all of Latin American.  The market takes place in Otavalo's main plaza.  The market is complemented by an explosion of color from the many fabric, fruit, and other stalls.  And shopping we did go.  The decisions of what to buy finally came down to what can we pack in our luggage and not have it be over weight as we travel home.

As beautiful and colorful as the fruit was, we were warned not to eat it. 

 Tommy was looking for a straw hat.

Virginia suggested this one.  He didn't buy it!

Leaving Otavalo at about 10:30, we traveled a few miles high in the surrounding hills to the Parque Condor.  There, we could get an up-close view of Andean condors, as well as eagles, owls, falcons and hawks at this Dutch-owned foundation, which rehabilitates these and other birds of prey.   The free flight demonstration at 11:30 a.m. was outstanding.

When the flight demonstration ended, we soon departed from this area and returned back to Otavalo and then eventually to Quito and the Quito airport arriving there about 4:30 p.m.to check in for our flight to Lima, Peru that departed at 8:15 p.m. At the airport, we bid farewell to Humberto, our driver and Vivian, our guide for the week.  We've become very fond of both of them and wish them well.  Vivian stayed with us until we had checked in for the flight and had our boarding passes in hand.  Then we proceeded though security to our gate area.  Once in the gate area we located a Johnny Rockets Hamburger restaurant and all enjoyed our hamburgers.

On this flight our "extra" seat (i.e. the empty seat between Sylvia's window seat & my aisle seat) was taken by a young man from New Zealand.  His passport, money, and identification had been stolen in Ecuador.  He was en route to Chile where a friend of his in the New Zealand embassy was going to help him get a new passport.  When dinner was served, Sylvia & I both took everything that was offered and then gave it to this young man.  He was traveling with very limited money and was very hungry.

We landed in Lima, Peru at the appointed time of 10:30 p.m. and were soon met by a representative of Quimbaya Tours International, the local representative of Friendly Planet.  And, we then learned that our wonderful "group of 4" was no more.  For this segment of the trip we were in a group of 21.  Once all had boarded the large bus we were transported to the Atton San Isidro hotel in Lima.   The representative used the time of the long ride from the airport to the hotel to outline our schedule while in Lima and then continued on with all the days while in Peru, giving hints and suggestions about traveling to and staying in Machu Picchu and Cusco.  This included tips for dealing with the changes in altitude, i.e. what to eat, how much to sleep, etc.  It was nearly midnight by the time we arrived at the hotel and it had been a very long day.  The hotel was very nice but there seemed to be a problem getting bottles of water.  (We had been cautioned to not drink any water except that from a sealed bottle).  Finally, the issue was resolved and we all fell into bed exhausted.