Quito & Cotopaxi

We flew out of Sydney on 1 February and arrived at Quito on 1 February, with about 36 hours worth of wating at various airports and in the air.  Our bodies felt like we had ran a marathom. At Quito, we were met by Wendy from Enchanted Expedition.  Wendy introduced us to the driver Marco.  They took us to the Hotel Sierra Madre on Ventimilla.  The hotel is a very quaint old spanish style building with lots of cedar beams and nice wooden doors.  The bedroom has nice wooden beds and furniture and is very clean and comfortable.  Breakfast is part of the deal and very good.  At our first breakfast we met other travellers who are also going to the Galapagos but with a different group.  One our first day at Quito, Gloria (another guide from Enchanted Expedition) took us to Old Quito and told us about the history, culture, population and politics.  More details ....later.  All very interesting but we are at an internet cafe at the moment and we need to go soon.  Today we went with Ivan (another terrific guide) to the Cotopaxi and along the Avenue of Volcanoes.  We were lucky as Ivan mentioned that every Thursday there is a local livestock market at Saquisili.  So we went there first and it was just great to see the locals trading their livestock and produce.  We saw some Ecuadorian fruits we have never seen.  We took lots of photos (to be shared so be prepared for our famous ´slide show´).  Then we headed to Cotopaxi where we first collected our local Indian guide Doris.  Both Ivan and Doris were experts at birds and local plants used for medicinal purposes.  We show eagles, humming birds, andean gulls, andean ducks, lapwings, insect eaters, etc.  Ivan told us that there are about 1800 birds in Ecuador. The ice lake we walked around was about 3850m above sea level.   At about 2.30pm we sat down for a huge picnic lunch prepared by the tour company.  We got back to the hotel after 5.00pm.  We decided that we needed to get in touch so we went to have a quick light dinner and in search of an internet cafe.  So here we are.  Now we need to go and pack and be ready to leave at 6.40 am .