Guinea Pig Lagoon

So the rest of the group left about an hour ago for the weekend excursion to Baños, a little town that apparently has extreme-type sports (canyoning, whitewater rafting, bungee jumping) and wild nightlife. What somehow inexplicably escaped all of them is that Baños means "bathrooms," and frankly after last weekend that's not something that I'm that interested in exploring. This is actually the one excursion I chose not to go on, and it's at a good time. I'm looking forward to taking this weekend and relaxing.... and besides, Abuela's super excited to take me and Omar to this huge Orchid Exposition that's here in Quito this weekend. It should be almost as good as the Greater Cleveland International Auto Show that I'll be missing.... almost.

I've got pictures from last weekend at Otavalo. I forgot to mention last Sunday afternoon, when we stopped to hike and take a boat ride around Laguna Cuicocha, which literally means "Guinea Pig Lagoon." The island in the middle of this lake are home to incredible numbers of wild guinea pigs, which are considered a delicacy here. Also, the lagoon is on top of the imploded dome of a volcano, which 3,000 years ago was one of the largest in the world. As proof that the volcano is still active, there are bubbles constantly floating to the surface of the water, and the water temperature is a balmy 45 degrees Fahrenheit, instead of the near-freezing temperatures a lake at that elevation should have.



























So I found another activity/event that has been added to my list of things to do while I'm here in Quito: drunk bullfighting. The Quito Plaza de Toros is fairly close to my house, and I just recently asked if there would be any bullfights I could attend while I'm here. While the official answer is "no," apparently there are some semi-organized drunken parties that happen every once in a while in Quito where the locals get wasted and jump in a ring with the bulls. I will consider my time in Quito a failure if I don't manage to witness some drunken bullfighting before I leave.

Cultural note of the day: The car alarms here are INSANE. It takes nothing to set them off, they go off for no reason, and it happens any time of the day. I've gotten woken up at 3:00 AM several times because of someone's freaking car. I hate South American car alarms.

SHOUT-OUTS GO TO: Swenson's, BW3, Flying Pizza, Mirror Lake, Mary Coyle's, Donato's, Insomnia Cookies, Potbelly's, and all the other food I'm completely craving right now. And on a non-food note, Horse.

From Ecuador,
Andy