You're going to Quevedo? Why?

Laguna Quicocha

That's what every person we told asked us when we told them what we were doing that weekend.  More on Quevedo in a bit.

On the long Easter weekend, we took advantage of our time off to see a few more places we haven't been to.  Thursday, we got up early and took the bus from the Carcelen station in Quito to Otavalo.  From Otavalo's station we hopped on a bus going to Quiroga for 25 cents and paid 5 dollars for a ride in the back of a pickup truck to our destination Lagua Quicocha.  Lagua Quicocha is another crater lake, like Quilatoa, but this one has two islands in the middle that are supposed to look like guinea pigs.  Quicocha is the Quitchwa word for guinea pig.

Our goal was to hike around the crater rim. It was a pretty easy hike with nice views of the lake and nearby Cotacachi mountain (which I hope to climb in May).  The last hour though wasn't on a trail but a dusty road.  When we got back to the park entrance we continued walking down the long road toward town, hoping to catch a ride from someone.  It took a while, but eventually a taxi drove by and took us back to Quiroga, and we went back to Quito.

We're still trying to do something in each of the 24 provinces of Ecuador, so to knock out Los Rios and Santo Domingo province we planned to spend Friday night in the city Quevedo, and catch breakfast in Santo Domingo.  These two cities have little to offer for tourists.  When we told our coworkers we were going there, they couldn't understand why.  It would be like a foreigner in the US saying they were going to go visit Youngstown, Ohio, or Gary, Indiana.

Amber grinding grain in Quicocha

Quevedo is known for having a high number of Chinese immigrants and Chinese restaurants so our goal here was to eat some Chinese food.  We were in the main part of town and only saw 2 restaurants and 2 Chinese people.  However, the food we got was really good.  The hotel we chose was memorable but not really in a good way.  We just picked a hotel and asked the guy how much.  I didn't understand a word he said, because they have a different accent and speak very quickly in western Ecuador.  I finally figured out that the room was only $12 for both of us.  He showed us one room where the toilet was actually in the shower.  So you could sit down and do your business while having water spayed on you.  I guess that's convenient.  I noticed a room in the back that had no windows and was farther away from the street.  Amber sleeps better with no light and noise from the street so I asked if we could have that room.  This whole time, the hotel guy had been carrying two buckets of water with him.  It wasn't until he dropped them off in the bathroom when I understood what he had been trying to tell me in the beginning.  There's no running water.  Whatever.  We're only there for night.  At least it has A/C.  Sort of.  The window style air conditioning unit was installed with the back part in the bathroom.  No windows, so this was their only option.  Essentially it was as effective as just putting the thing on a table in the room.  Our room cooled off a bit, but the bathroom was 100 degrees or more.  We kept the bathroom door open because we were afraid of it getting too hot.

After a sweaty night's sleep on plastic sheet, we walked to the bus terminal and caught a bus going to Santo Domingo.  The view on the ride was full of banana and chocolate tree plantations.  Some guy got on the bus selling hot Piña bread, so we bought one.  It was okay.  Santo Domingo was another rundown city with abandoned factories and houses.  Not much to see there.  At the bus terminal, we wandered around a bit and bought a popular drink that's made in Santo Domingo called Avena Polaca.  It's a cold, milk-based drink thickened with powdered oatmeal.  It's like drinking a melted vanilla milkshake and Amber and I both love them.  Then I got an over-priced and not very good seco de pollo with rice for breakfast.  We caught a bus back to Quito and rested the rest of the weekend.

Interesting Fact:  A mild curse word they use in Ecuador fairly often is Miércoles!  If you know your Spanish then you know it means Wednesday.  So imagine stubbing your foot on the bed, shaking your fist in air, and shouting, "Oh, Wednesday!!"