Holla everybody:

This will be my last email since we are leaving at 6:45 on Saturday morning. We will have to get up at 3:00 and take a cab to the airport to be there at 4:00. It's going to be a very long day since we arrive in Vancouver at midnight on Saturday. Not really looking forward to that but it can't be helped. I promised something a little more on the light side after the "prison visit" episode. We have been in Quito almost 10 days and it's the capital where we will have stayed the longest. Luckily for us it's also one where there are quite a few things to do and the food is more on a international palette level than elsewhere. The other day we found a French bakery and the pains au chocolat and croissants were heavenly. We have also eaten a lot of arabic food. Shawarmas and a pop cost $1.50 so it's very reasonable. We have been a little tired of south american food which is not exactly varied. Overall it's potatoes in the form of fries and rice with some meat, usually chicken. Chicken is the king of meat here and elsewhere. I don't want to eat barbequed chicken for a while.

Lest you think we have been complete philistines throughout this trip that is certainly not the case. We have visited many museums, churches, archeological sites but it doesn't always make for riveting reading.

Yesterday we visited two such extraordinary museums. One was the house of the most famous painter in South America Oswaldo Guyasamin and the other is called "la capilla del hombre" which means the chapel of man dedicated to the suffering of the poor, the exploited, the hunted and the disenfranchised. The building is absolutely magnificent and the paintings are equal to the setting. For those who have an interest in art you can look up his work on the internet. His house contained one of the best archeological collections we have seen throughout the trip. It wasn't huge but the pieces were very impressive and big which is quite rare.

In addition to visiting museums we also took two trips. We went to the village of Otavalo on Sunday, it's two hours away. Otavalo has the biggest artesania market in all of South America. We bought more than we should have. The women of Otavalo are particularly striking. They wear a peasant type blouse, white with long bouffant sleeves, a skirt which is either dark blue or black and the two items a joinged together by a multicolored sash wrapped very tightly around their little waists. Their hair is always long and usually in a braid or piled high with some kind of decoration. They also wear wear strings of golden beads around their neck. On their feet they have these cute, chinese like black slippers. The whole effect is very appealing. The men all have long hair, tied in a braid and most of them wear hats and ponchos and white pants.

We also went to the town of Latacunga hoping to see quite a few volcanoes along the way but we only saw three before the weather turned to cloudy obscuring the tops.

It's hard to believe our trip is over although it feels like we have been on the road for a very long time. There is much more to say about South America, the social, the political and the cultural. I have many opinions about those topics but opinions are better debated "en vivo". Our spanish is quite good. I have practiced a lot. The whole jungle trip was completely in Spanish and wasn't a problem.

Hope you've all enjoyed reading about our travels. Nissa is going to make a little book out of all the emails I wrote. Feel free to write back. I will check my emails when in Vancouver or Summerland. It feels strange to write that.

Lots of love, thanks for reading,

Josiane

---

Win a webcam! Nominate your friend’s Windows Live Space in the Windows Live Spaces Sweetest Space Contest and you both could win!