Getting a Ride and a Spare Room!

  Ibarra, Ecuador
Friday, January 5, 2007

 
        Next to me on the flight was a sweet quiet Ecuadorian, Carlos, who was living in Spain & returning home for a month.We chatted & he told me his family lived in north. I had planned to stay the night in Quito, rather than take a bus & arrive in the dark in Otavalo, but had an idea... I rather cheekily  asked if his family, who were all meeting him at the airport ,would possibly have room to drop me off on the way! He said heŽd ask & when i met the family at the airport, I was soon invited by his mum Maria to stay at her house in Ibarra, a little further north than my intended stop! I met all his extended family, was invited to stay as long as I wanted & got to eat traditional potato soup to boot!

         After a bus failed to arrive at Ibarra's bus station, I was rescued by some locals &  got a lift to get another bus for the border. I then had to endure 4 hours queuing  at Ecuadorian immigration to leave the country I had only spent 20 hrs in!!!!! It was v. boring until the end when it almost ended in fisticuffs when some people tried to push in the front, took several policemen to calm the irate queue, including me!