Day 15 - Otavalo and the train to Salinas

Today we had a change of plan from our original tour, so we had a 5am start to get to Otovalo, north of Quito, to catch a fairly new tourist train to Salinas.  It looked as though it would take an unreasonably long time to get from one end to the other, but we were in for surprises.

Diego handed us over to Jaime (pronounce in Spanish) who was in charge of all 13 people on the train, 12 women and Pete, though all the rest spoke Spanish.  The clouds had lifted and the sun was coming out as we got underway along the beautiful valley.  The train stopped at every station for an activity and the first was to try some biscuits and jam, which we think may have been bilberry.
At the next station, we walked across the road and back in time in Lancashire, to a cotton mill, equipped in the 1920s, with cleaning and carding machines from Manchester, spinning machines from Bolton and weaving looms from Burnley (where Pete’s parents come from; could his Granddad have set one of those looms?)

The next stop was to look at carvings of religious figures.  The workmanship was absolutely exquisite.

When we reached the next stop, it was heaving and 80 more people got on the train for the exciting bit, a massive bridge over a canyon and lots of tunnels.  The last but one stop was a viewpoint over the canyon before we rolled into Salinas.

This is a town of black Ecuadorians, who danced for us before lunch, which was soup, then chicken, not terribly exciting.  We met up with Diego for the drive back to Otovalo Market, which is the biggest textile market in South America.  Sadly it started to rain and the vendors started to pack up, so our looking and bargaining time was short.

As we reached Quito, it began to rain and the traffic was horrific.  The rain did stop, but the journey into the city was dreadful.


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