Waterfalls, Thermal Baths, Local Markets, Volcanic Crater Lakes

Ecuador is a rich and diverse country.  Every day provides a new and interesting experience.  A few things that have stuck with me are the landscape and the people.  The country gives you lush green hillsides to steep rugged and jagged mountains, snow-capped volcanoes and treacherously steep cliffed drops, to lovely alpine meadows, to rolling farmland that looks like a patchwork of miles and miles of crops.  Then you have the Amazon, which is a world unto itself.  And on the other side of the Andes you have the flat lands down to the coast where the banana and cocoa plantations are aplenty.

The crater lake in Quilotoa - the water is alkaline and the lake is said to be bottomless.

San Rafael Falls in Reventador

Another crater lake, Las Orquideas, this time with two islands in the middle.  It was a lovely trek around the rim.

The thermal baths at Papallacta - hot water, straight from the ground!

Another impressive view.

The people are friendly, quiet and kind.  The traditional clothes and lifestyle are still common in the rural areas.  Each community has a slightly different style of dress, but what they all have in common is their stature.  They are a small people, most barely reaching up to my armpits. Both the men and the women wear their hair long - men often in braids down their back, women with a long tail wrapped with a piece of colorfully woven cloth.  The women carry their children on their backs well past the age where they can walk on their own.  But, I have to say, the children are well-behaved and seem to be quite content even though their view is mostly of the back of their mother's head.

Buying Guinea Pigs at the local market - first they are carefully checked for  size and weight before being unceremoniously dropped into a sack.

A healthy bunch of guinea pigs for sale.

Piglets on a string, ready to be sold.  But bring your own string if you want to buy one.

A local lady and her daughter selling their wares.

The ladies in this region wear cloth wrapped on their head while the men wear felt hats.  In the South the women wear the felt hats.  

A busy day at the animal market.

The Poncho Market - this one is a little more geared to the tourists.

Lots of handicrafts and things for sale.  Caution - even here some things are actually "made in China"!