Otavalo

The rain had to catch up to us eventually.  While we dealt with partial day showers in Quito, Cuyabeno, and Cuenca, the day we arrived in Orvieto was a total washout.  Alas.  We had a delicious Mexican lunch at Taco Bello, and then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the room.  We stayed at the Hostal Riviera Sucre, which was great.  It was a cute property, had strong and hot water in the bathroom, and lots of blankets on the beds (needed since the rooms weren't heated). 

The big draw of Orvieto was the markets on Saturday.  We actually got there too early, while they were still setting up, so we had coffee and waited for things to get going. The markets were huge.  I want to come back and go Christmas shopping.  This was definitely not the place to come with limited suitcase space and limited budget. I loved all of the beautiful textiles and jewelry that were for sale.  We spent most of the day wandering through the aisles and aisles of goods. 

The late afternoon, sick of the crowds, we took a cab to Peguche Waterfall, just outside the city.  It was lovely to be in nature again, hiking up to the pretty fall.  It rained a little, but produced a grand rainbow.  We decided to walk back, since the rain had stopped.  It took about an hour, but the sunshine was lovely. 

The next morning we had time before the bus back to Quito.  We took a bus and a cab up to a lagoon in an old volcanic crater.  It was a gorgeous lake, probably even prettier in full sunshine. We didn't have time to walk fully around Cotacachi, but got some pretty pictures.