Ecuador, Part 2: Shall we dance?

After 4 days in the Amazon we went back to Quito. We spent the night in our hostel and went up to Otavalo and Cotacachi the next day. Otavalo is the site of the longest-running and largest indigenous market in South America (it's been in existence since the Incan era), and Cotacachi is famous for its leather goods. (As we drove up to the town the air smelled like leather - it was pretty cool!)

We spent another night in Quito and found a few cool spots on La Ronda - a colonial era (1600s) street full of shops, galleries, and cafes. My favorite memory from our time in Quito was from our second to last night there. Robb and I were starving and tired (so I was rather grumpy), and we were walking up and down La Ronda, looking for a good place to eat. As it was the 23rd, there was a LOT of loud celebrating (and karaoke, oddly enough) going on. I was not in the mood for a noisy crowd.

We finally settled on a VERY small cafe on a side street (mostly because their sidewalk sign said they had pizza.) ;-) We sat down and ordered, and as we waited for our food the cafe owner very kindly changed the radio to American Christmas music. We started up a conversation with the lady and her husband, drank her amazing, out-of-this-world-delicious hot chocolate, ate our pizza, and talked some more.

Robb had been drumming on the table as we ate (a common occurrence) and we talked about rhythm and then dancing. When the owners found out Robb didn't know how to do any Latin dances they decided to change that. He, of course, protested, but they shoved the other two tables out of the way, cranked up the music, and the señora pulled him out of his seat and started teaching him how to cumbia. All in all, we had a fabulous time dancing with this older couple in their little 10x10 cafe. It was definitely one of my favorite experiences from the trip.