We started our Quilatoa journey in the colonial town of Latacunga, which was larger and more beautiful than we expected. We were pleasantly surprised!
With several building with nice arches.
Same building, different perspective.
Another colonial building.
The doorways in Latacunga are equally wonderfully carved!
And even the smallest pueblos in Ecuador love sculptured parks... with a little more cement than is my liking.
This is a garbage can. It says "I am a garbage can. Occupy me!"
We found a guide in Latacunga who could give us a day trip (2 1/2 hours drive each way with park entry and lunch) for $20. So our next stop is Pujili to visit the market and pick up some breakfast.
Lots (and I mean lots!) of fruit was available there.
This flat lettuce looked very strange to a Canadian!
And I guess they like their chickens whole!
...among other animal parts!
These "Ladrillos" (litrally bricks, but in actually were sweet corn bread) were very tasty.
You could even buy prepared ice cream cones.
Then we moved on to the Tigua Museum / Store (in the town of Tigua).
You could buy the masks, which ranged from devils with snakes on their horns, to lions, to dogs, to condors, to people. (In Tigua, they just paint the masks, they don't carve the wood masks though.)
We had lots of fun trying them on too!
Tigua art also includes these brightly coloured landscapes which focused on a family of indigenes, painted on canvass or furniture.
The landscapes we passed driving to Quilatoa were awe-inspiring!
