I woke up this morning with the first real allergy attack I have had on this trip. Cotacachi is a veritable garden of flowers. We will probably not settle here, both due to the allergy issue and the small size of the town would probably leave us bored after a couple months. We decided to end our trip to Cotacachi by going down “leather street” where Evelyn bought a new belt, since her old ones are now too big.
Many of the leather shops in town were modern, clean, and priced low.
While walking around town for the last time, we did more people watching. There are many indigenous people here in traditional garb, existing side-by-side with those in dress that would look at home in any American city.
We then walked over to the bus terminal and started our journey from Cotacachi to Banos de los Aqua. This turned out to be bigger effort than we had expected.
The first leg started at 10:15AM when we boarded a bus from Cotacachi to Otavalo for 25 cents. We then caught a bus for $2 that took us from Otavalo to Quito. We were surprised to find ourselves dumped at a tiny bus station in Quito, and found we next needed to board a $1.20 bus to Quitumbe. That was the major hub we had expected. The Banos Express was leaving in 10 minutes, so Evelyn made a quick rest stop and we raced to catch the final bus to Banos for $3.50. We arrived in Banos at 6:30, having taken four busses in a little over 8 hours, costing us just under $7 each.
When we got off the bus at Bano, we were swarmed by hawkers trying to get us to come to their hostel, We had already decided on a hotel, based on Trip Advisor, so grabbed a taxi to La Posado del Arte. We had no reservations, but the hotel was nearly empty. This has been our experience on the entire trip. Seems like all the hotels and restaurants are vacant. This is the “high season,” so it would seem tourism must be down this year.
After settling in, we took a walk around town. They really go all out with Christmas decorations in this town! When I commented on that to the hotel owner, she said the current mayor is big on decorations — much more so than prior mayors
