One of these days I'll get Moira to make a post, I swear.

Anyway, an update. Wednesday, Moira and I went to Otavalo which is a town about two hours north of Quito. The primary attraction is the mercado artesanal, with rows and rows of vendors selling everything from textiles to jewelry to clothes to pottery. We bought some pretty choice items, most notably a pair of orange overalls for me and a sweater for Moira embroidered with llamas, flowers, cacti, etc. The best part about both of those items is that you can find them everywhere, but only in children's sizes. Both of us were pretty convinced that we weren't going to find any adult sizes, so thank goodness for Otavalo's artisans and their understanding of our demand for child-appropriate clothing.

We had intended to stay the night in Otavalo because apparently there are some great hikes around the town with views of waterfalls and lakes. But, after a day of intense shopping and haggling, we decided to come back to Quito. However, we did make time to stop at a pie shop so Moira could eat pie de mora (ha). Mora means blackberry in Spanish and is an incredibly popular flavor here, and we never seem to get tired of making jokes about Moira eating mora. Jugo de mora, yogurt de mora, batido de mora. Really, it never gets old.

Yesterday, we took the teleferico (aerial tram) up Pinchincha, which is about 4300 meters in altitude. The last few vertical meters are left to hike, so we climbed up most of the way and got to see a beautiful view of Quito and the surrounding mountains. Quito has a strange layout for a city, in that it's something like 8 km wide and 80 km long. It's divided into the Old City in the south, where all of the cathedrals are, and the New City, where Moira and I are staying. The view was breathtaking and there was some incredible, unique vegetation all along the mountainside. Definitely a wonderful little day trip.

After our return to the city proper, Moira and I went to book our excursion to Cotopaxi. This was more of a hassle than it probably should have been, but ultimately it got sorted out. Cotopaxi is a national park and no one can enter without a certified guide. The problem is, a lot of questionable folks stand at the entrance to the park and try to charge ridiculous prices to unsuspecting tourists, then slip them into the park illegally. This can be avoided, but apparently there aren't many travel agencies that book legitimate tours. Luckily we finally found one, so we're going for the day on Saturday. Apparently our excursion involves hiking up to some glaciers, biking 16 km down the volcano, and eating chocolate cake. Sounds pretty okay to me.

After that, Moira and I roamed around La Foch trying to find this great antique/handicraft store that we went to last week with Toni. I think it took us about and hour to find it, but in the meantime, we bought these strange fruits called tunas. They're about the size of an small egg and are bright red and covered with spines. When you open it, there is this strange, clear, jelly-like entity with a seed in the middle. Pretty flavorless, but worth the five cents just for the sheer bizarre factor.

Anyway, while we were still searching for this store, I ran into a fellow Reedie who was sitting in front of a cafe. Reed has a club called the Ecuador Service Project, and participants spend four weeks in rural Ecuador doing community development projects. Robin is the signator of this club and has been coming to Ecuador for years. She just graduated and is hanging out in Quito before the service work actually begins. She gave us her contact information so we can meet up before we all head our separate ways.

Sorry to cut this short, but we're leaving to go fruit shopping. Toni's son and his girlfriend arrived last night from North Carolina, so we're going together.

Chau!