28 de junio

Today I walked to Cotacachi which is about 15 or 16 km from Otavalo. I walked the first half along the abandoned railway and then the last half on the road to Cotacachi off the Pan American Highway. It was awesome.

View from the train tracks - notice the snow








Amazing how the tracks have moved since they were abandoned











More of the path that I took on the first half











The road from the panamerican to Cotacachi.












These pictures are just a couple from Cotacachi - which is known for its leather. I had lunch for $2.50 which included a .6 liter beer - it was soup, rice, home made french fries and liver (I think) & onions - really good. Like many places here you ask for lunch and what you get is what is for lunch - if its a small place you may get 2 options but often times not. This place really closes up for siesta - there is alot of shops that appear to cater to the tourists (I saw one gringo) and they too close up for siesta.


























I took a taxi from Cotacachi to the Laguna de Cuicocha. It is about 15km and cost $8 round trip including a half hour wait. There is not much to see other than the awesome vista. My driver said it takes about 4 hours to walk around - maybe Sunday? There is a boat that goes around the islands but it had left by the time I got there. There is a restaurant, hostal, and tourist stuff there - just no tourists hardly.