Adventure and Cultural Travel with a Sustainable Twist
Many travellers I met in Ecuador and Colombia gave northern Ecuador a miss. And I get it – you’re on a budget, time is tight, you gotta prioritise. Or maybe you’re just thinking about visiting Otavalo on a day-trip from Quito. Actually, there is plenty to keep you occupied – Continue Reading
Industrialisation has been a boon for us in so many ways. But we’re paying a heavy price for it, as well. All over the world, age-old traditional ways of doing things – by hand, from scratch – have been slowly forgotten. Backstrap weaving Backstrap weaving is one of these dying Continue Reading
Museo Otavalango Some people will tell you never to visit the same place twice. “The world is so big and life is so short, why waste time revisiting?” I don’t subscribe to that point of view at all. Life is so short – sometimes your time is better spent returning Continue Reading
First, apologies for the Spanglish in the title. I guess it should technically say either “(las) Lagunas de Mojanda y Cuicocha” or “Mojanda and Cuicocha Lakes”, but: this blog is in English, so I ruled the former out (maybe one day I’ll write something in Spanish so I won’t have Continue Reading
Hi guys – I’m back! Can’t believe it’s been 4 months since I last posted. A lot has been going on and I have a huge backlog of photos to go through and places to write about. After a while, it just feels too daunting to even begin. You know Continue Reading
Stuck in Otavalo The best laid plans of mice and men… I arrived back in Quito late at night, fresh from an unforgettable trip to the Amazon, and had planned to go back to Intag the following day (30 December). Unfortunately, by the time I arrived in Otavalo at about Continue Reading
Knitting Knitting is one of those things that I did briefly once before a long time ago. It was so long ago that I’d forgotten entirely how to knit, but for some reason I’d been thinking about picking it up again. Perhaps it was that failed crocheting session with Patricia, Continue Reading
Christmas shopping in Otavalo One weekend in mid-December, I went to Otavalo to get some Christmas presents and send them home. Otavalo, as I’ve mentioned before, is most famous for the indigenous market on Saturdays where they sell lots of handicrafts and crafted goods like ponchos, tapestries, scarves and bags. Continue Reading
Shortly after the Day of the Dead celebrations, I packed my bags for Quito. My 3-month tourist visa was almost up and I was heading to the immigration office in Quito to renew it for another 6 months (the Visa 12:IX). Of course, it was also the perfect excuse to take some time Continue Reading
Most of the fellow travellers I meet tend to spend a couple of days, at the most, in Otavalo: visiting the Saturday market and Cuicocha Lake seem to be the most popular activities. I’d already spent a week in Otavalo prior to Intag, but my host family has relatives there Continue Reading