13th March 2015 – Quito to Otavalo – 2015-03-17 23:13

Michael was up early this morning to finish off a couple of maintenance items on the car, he changed the brake pads so we won’t have squeaky brakes any more. We have a late departure of midday for our 130 kilometer drive to Otavalo.ÿ It takes us over an hour to get out of Quito through the traffic joining the Pan American highway north, it’s a fabulous 2 lane toll way as we climb and wind our way out of the valley that Quito is in. Quito is surrounded by 15 active volcanoes with the most recent eruption in 1999 which doesn’t seem to worry the locals.We drive about 95 kilometers from Quito to the equator or La Mitad del Mundo. There is a large monument and sign to mark the equator and our GPS confirms it with a latitude of 00.0000. We stop for coffee and a bizcocho In Cayambe, as this town is famous for these finger biscuits, not too sure why. They don’t have a lot of taste on their own and they serve them with a soft white cheese in a tube.We continue our drive this afternoon through lush green hills.We arrive at our beautiful hacienda and receive a very warm welcome from the staff.The house is 300 years old and has always been in the one family. The house at one stage produced local textiles and employed 1,000 people until part of it was destroyed by a volcano eruption. The house was turned into a hotel 7 years ago. The grounds are lovely with quite a few horses, a peacock, lake, fountain and pretty gardens. The rooms are all different & enormous with old world charm and antiques, they even have an open fireplace which is lit for us tonight. At the same time the staff put 2 hot water bottles in our bed, just the thing to warm my cold feet.Before dinner in the elegant dining room we have welcome drinks in the bar and we are treated to a short performance by a local Andes style band, comprising guitar, ukelele, pan pipes, drum and maracas. We all enjoyed the music, everywhere we’ve been we hear these types of bands playing South American music it’s great.