Ecuador ....first to Ibarra and Octavalo, then Quito. Upon arrival in Ibarra on a Sunday afternoon we walked to one of the city parks and came across this city band concert.  Nice afternoon although all the music sounds the same to my ears.



Ibarra is a midsized city that we stopped at in order to consider a detour to the Ecuador coast . (New road built within the last few years).  Unfortunately the new road did away with the old railroad that was a classic travelers story...decend a few thousand feet from bare mountains to the steamy seacoast with the adventurist passengers riding on the top of the train. But it is no more....now just the inside of a german built bus.

However the day after we arrived there was a nationwide bus strike for all intercity bus lines.  Little dispute that the government mandates lower fares for students and elderly but has not reimbursed the bus lines to the tune of about $72,000,000.  Only a one day strike as they dont want taxi drivers and population figuring out a new way to get around the country.  Like just going to the former bus stop and meeting outgoing autos to share the ride.

This didnt affect us other than a day delay on toing to Octavalo which is a well known native market site.  We were not inpressed after going to small town markets.  Just don{t need more chinese socks, etc.



Later we were told that you really need to find the warehouses...and that the Octovaloans are the wealthest indiginous group in the world.  Well, good for them.

We then moved onto Quito, a very large and crowded city we had visited before.

Quito struck us a dirtier than it was 5 or 6 years ago.  Reports are number of cars have increased by fifty percent in the last five years....and I believe it.   In the future I think I will skip Quito in exploring Ecuador...just a transit point.

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