Hola!

Hi Everyone. We are still at Patricia and Eduardo´s hosteria. It is beautiful. They have been so hospitible. We have been the only guests, so it´s like we have our own staff. The ranch has four small cabins for guests, the main house with a restaurant below and a golf course. It is located on a lake surrounded by mountains. Okay, so we are not quite roughing it yet....
Saturday we went to the town of Otavolo. It is known for its famous market. For many street blocks there are Indian vendors. It was pretty cool to see. They are most known for Alpacca knit wear and beautifully embroidered clothes. It was fun for Doug to bargain. I bought an Alpacca scarf for $4.00 and hat and gloves for $4.oo. That´s about all I can fit in my backpack.
Yesterday, Pat and Lalo took us to San Antonio to look at sculptures and a modern art exhibit. They had amazing woodwork at very cheap prices. Unfortunetly, it is too expensive to ship to the states and we can´t carry anything else. I think not shopping is going to be the hardest part of the trip for me!
After that, we had a huge lunch where Pat and Lalo invited some friends over to the ranch. It was nice because they all spoke English. They gave us many good tips on where to stay throughout Ecuador.
So today is strange because all the main roads are closed due to stikes. We heard on the news that this might be the case because students, teachers, and a lot of other political groups are not happy. I guess this sometimes happens for half a day, a few days, or weeks! So we might be ¨stuck¨ here for awhile. Doug and I walked into Ibarra today. By ¨closing¨the roads, they just drag trees and burning car tires across the road. Cars that try to pass get rocks thrown at their windsheilds. The government does nothing. CRAZY! We will post pictures soon. We are going to get some famous Ibarran icecream and walk back to the ranch and play some golf. Our plan is to leave tomorrow and head back to Quito to arrange a tour into the jungle. We´ll see if the roads are cleared.