Ecuador: Day 9, 10,

Day 9:
We awoke early because we were supposed to met Eduadro, Maria and Ivan (his friend) and drive up to Otavalo (a city with a great indigenous market). While we were eating breakfast and Ivan showed up with his sister (who for the life of me I cannot remember her name, sorry). We set out about half an hour later, I drove with Ivan and his sister because there weren't enough seat belts in Eduardo's car. Me and Ivan's sister got along and talked for a bit about music, books, Pride and Prejudice and other films. We first stopped at the sight of about 15 ancient Quitu pyramids. If you didn't know you would most likely think these pyramids were large grassy mounds for that's exactly what they looked like. We walked around with a guide who had been at the sight since they were first excavated in the late 1960's. He was an interesting fellow and told many stories about the people to us. It was neat because there were many lamas that lived there and I loved being able to see them up close. They're so cute and I never noticed their similarity to camels.
They never found any treasure in the one pyramid they dug into. It was discovered to be a burial place and they found over 100 skulls. At the top of one of the pyramids there was an observatory that the Quitu (the original people of this area) used. There was a place where they observed the moon and a place where they watched the sun. Our guide did a cleansing ritual on Greg with different plants because he sensed Greg had some bad energy. We also went inside the little museum they had with artifacts which was interesting.
We set out again and after about an hour (maybe more) we arrived in the city of Otavalo. Unfortunately just as soon as we arrived there it began to rain. We walked around the market and I found a ton of lovely things; striped pants, an amazing headband, little bags, a blouse, socks scarves and many other fantastic things. And the best part was, everything was so cheep. For example my pair of striped orange pants were only three dollars. One could buy many many amazing items and not feel as though they had used a lot of money. Mom and Greg also found some nice things, like sweaters and purses. The market was so nice to look at because of all the hanging blankets and knitted things in bright colors. And even though the sky was gray all the color made everything more cheery.
The one thing about the market that disturbed me was seeing all the roasting meat around. There were grills and stalls with pig heads and chicken carcases. I felt a bit nauseous and I'm still not to fond of eating meat after that. It was also sad seeing all the trash laying about, on the streets and in the plants. It just felt so forlorn and run down, as if the people didn't care.
We ate a late lunch/early dinner at this odd restaurant called Buena Vista (Good View, which was a good name because the view over the market was great). Mom and I got a vegetable lasagna and a salad. They were both good. We piled back into the car and headed home. I found myself dosing off during the ride, but it was hard because the streets were so bumpy and I kept waking. In all I had a great time at the market, it was lots of fun.Day 10:
We got about around 10:30 and met Eduardo and Daniel (one of Greg's students). We all piled into the car and headed off towards Cotopaxi (a volcano near Quito). It took about an hours drive before we could see the volcano although threw out the day it was covered by clouds. Eduardo wanted to take us to visit a Hacienda near the volcano but we couldn't find the way to get there. We asked many different people and they all seemed to point us in a different direction. We finally found the street which was small and bumpy. The Hacienda was quite beautiful. As we drove up I noted that it felt rather like Argentina and the ranch there. It was built on some Incan ruins so parts of the walls were white washed and others we old stone brike. I really loved it there. We explored a bit and found this beautiful room with a dirt floor and a table with roses in the center. It felt like the perfect place for a photo shoot of some sort. In the center courtyard one could admire the lovely building with its yellow and white walls and then, later on, a herd of lamas came and you could feed them carrots. They were so cute and were really soft as well. There was a garden with lots of flowers and ducks who waddled around near the pond. There was a lovely room that felt really cosy with pictures of the owners and neat old books and objects.
We sat down to lunch with another group of five people. Two were diplomats at the Argentine embassy stationed in Quito, they were really interesting and talked with Greg a lot about politics which didn't interest me much, but they still seemed nice. One girl, who was about my age was from England and was in Quito learning about chocolate because her parents own a chocolate factory. When I heard this I thought that that seemed extremely fun having parents that own a chocolate factory and traveling to learn more about chocolate. But it turned out her true passion was for dance.
The first part of the meal was Locro which was amazing, maybe the best so far. We also got an incredible juice called Naranjilla. It takes like Pineapple, orange, guava and peach all together. I got a chicken salad while everyone else had fish, it was really yummy. For dessert they had this fruit (which I don't remember) in this sauce which I really liked but Greg wasn't fond of. In all the meal was really really good, expensive, but good.
We left the Hacienda and drove to a giant house-sized rock that came out of the volcano. It was huge! It was wild to see but sadly it was covered in graffiti, which wasn't very nice to see. We drove home and I was happy to be out of the car. I really loved seeing the Hacienda, it was one of my favorite things thus far.