Domingo. Día de Adventura

Today I caught a taxi to meet Carlee, Gaby, and a few others in the middle of Quito to depart on our excursion to Quilotoa.

**the few others are students from the US studying abroad at a university here in Quito. We were joined by several others from all around the globe including Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Brazil and Israel.

On our way our tour guide had us stop at a few places. The first was a hostel where we stopped for bathrooms, but to me it was so much more. There was a family of beautiful dogs! A golden lab and black lab with their two pups, one golden and one black.

We stopped at a large food market where I tried hard boiled quail eggs, small mangos, and a legume called "mote". The mote was served in a bag with onions, hot sauce, cilantro and garlic.

Our next stop was out in the country in a farm town where a wonderful family showed us their handmade home. This family has been there 50 years farming all sorts of goods from barley to guinea pigs. Inside their home were over a hundred guinea pigs on the floor and in baskets. We got to hold some of the babies.

Next we stopped at Cañon del Toachi, which long ago was a volcano and is now a large canyon. It was vast and very beautiful. There was also a boy with llama charging a dollar to take pictures with, so Carlee and I each decided to support him and jump on the opportunity to pet a llama.

Finally, three hours from Quito we arrived at Quilotoa. This also was once a volcano and is now a beautiful caldera. The hike down was not too bad, but for all my fellow kinesiology nerds out their, took quite a bit of eccentric strength. The way up was even more difficult. There was the option to ride a horse back up, but I liked the challenge. There was also the reasons of my mom almost losing her ear on a horse in Costa Rica, and the fact that I felt sorry for the exhausted horses that walked up and down all day long.

We stopped at a restaurant/hostel for lunch and enjoyed kale soup, rice, chicken, potatoes and peach juice.

Once home I had dinner with my family, took a much needed shower, and am now feeling exhausted from the day. Off to sleep before my second full week!

Abrazos,
Zoe