PapaGayo - Corazon & Saquisili Market

After our 2 crazy days walking we felt we needed an easy day so we set off on a 10k walk from PapaGayo lodge (above)

The weather was incredible and gave us the perfect view of all the surrounding volcanoes. This area is known as ´Volcano Alley´ for obvious reasons. Here is the view of Corazon the volcano we climbed the next day.

Cotopaxi in all its glory.

The housing and huts here fascinate me.

As does the basic agriculture. Most fields are ploughed by horse, planted and cut by hand.

The other thing this area is known for is roses. There are huge poly-tunnels containing thousands of roses all over the countryside, employing many local people.

The roses are picked and sized .................

................................ before being packed.

They grow so high and are kept so well (if you can ignore the huge amounts of pesticides they use).

They really are beautiful. Here they are the last flower a girl wants to receive as they are so cheap, around 7 pence each!

The following day we packed the van and drove quite literally half way up the mountain, one slip either way and the drop was not worth thinking about!

We set off up ´Corazon´in wonderful sunshine. To start with the walk was glorious.

Then it became more of a scramble just as my altitude issues kicked in.

Very soon the weather turned as I struggled up the rocky terrain.

I would love to say the climb was worth it but as you can see visibility was poor and a few moments later a hail storm started.

We rapidly headed back down, well as fast as the rocks would allow. It was great fun though as it was part rock part sand we kind of slid most of it.

Following the rocky sand was the oddest ground I have ever walked on, this mossy foliage was like walking on thick, rubbery sponges.

The weather just kept getting worse, this scene 2 hours earlier had bright blue skies.

If it wasn´t bad enough we they had death road once again in our van with the devil as a driver.

Sorry for the odd link here to fried pigs heads! The next day we headed, firstly, to a local market in Saquisili. I hoped the live pigs at the market could not see or smell this. And er no I did not try any.

The market was split into 3 sections, large animals, small animals and art & crafts. Here is a shot of the animal fodder in plies with a local lady rope making.

All sorts of large animals were bought and sold.

I just loved this pair.

Sugar cane as tall as Kenny!

The small animal section was even more busy with everything from fish .....

......... to chickens .......................

....... to bunnies .........

............. to guinea pigs or ´Cuy´as they call them. They are a delicacy here and along with the bunnies not sold as pets.

The third market was more crafts.

Oh and have you ever wondered where the other shoe is to the ones you see on the side of roads? I found them!

It also sold fruit and veg, the displays were fantastic. It still amazes me why, with all this wonderful veg. most Ecuadoreans insist on eating only meat fried so well it is as hard as leather with rice and chips! They have a huge issue here with diet related illnesses like diabetes especially in the cities.

The other thing we noticed all over South America is half build houses. The answer to this is simple they build them as they can afford to. As noone really moves the only way to have your own house is to build one. So they live in the ground floor until they can afford a second.