Plaza de Ponchos

After the craziness of the animal market and a breakfast of fruit and granola we headed to Plaza de Ponchos to visit the artisan market. Saturday's are renowned for being very busy but it's low season and there were only a handful of other tourists.

As with all markets, some of what's being sold really is tat but a lot of the stalls were selling beautifully handcrafted; tapestries, blankets, ponchos, jumpers, embroidered traditional blouses and fake shrunken heads (that's for another day...).

Spices

While we were browsing one stall I heard someone shouting "Abby and Lorraine" - Ben, Zoe and Lara, the children we'd met at our hostel in Quito had spotted us from a restaurant balcony - we had a quick chat and Mo & Martin (their parents) invited us over to their apartment for dinner one day this week - roast dinner, can't wait!

We bought some strawberries and a 'Guaba' pod (Aka Ice cream bean) from the street vendors as well as a few momentos.

Abs with a 'Guaba' pod

It was a hot day and we were soon all 'shopped out' and so decided to find somewhere for 'dos cerveza', en route we bought an empanada from a little girl who expertly handled the transaction and then continued on our way to a beer garden we'd spotted the day before.

Travelling is tough......

Raine x