Well, not entirely running out of new places to go, but at least, the list is getting quite a bit smaller, and since the big trips are already planned for other dates, we decided to take a well-needed return trip to Otavalo this weekend to… buy more stuff. 
The surprising part was that even though we had already been, we managed to spend about 4 hours shopping the second time. It was of course much easier knowing more of what we wanted/needed to buy and how much money we could afford to spend at this point in our trip.
Hilary, Lacy, and I woke up and started our journey by bus at about 8 am and with ease got to Otavalo about 11:00. One of my most necessary purchases was a new suitcase/bag to replace the one I got stolen from my first family when we were in the Galapagos. I didn’t end up buying the biggest bag they had, but I convinced myself that I didn’t in fact need it (I had packed up as much of my stuff I could in my one remaining suitcase the night before to see about how much more room I would need.) Now we hope that my optimism on my packing ability wasn’t too much. Maybe I’ll try packing everything again once more before I go just to be sure I don’t need to ship anything. In any case, I got a really pretty bag for $9 so I can’t really complain too much about the purchase. Of course I bought plenty of other things- although only one thing for me, a ring, and we all noted that is was a lot easier and more fun to barter with the merchants now with our expanded and more fluid Spanish. As we were noticing this we were also laughing at the other white people who didn’t know any Spanish try to be a part of this whole experience too. I’m sorry, but seeing sixty-some year old Brits and Americans being offended by the immediate high prices of things because they don’t understand the barter system is funny. My favorite part though was watching the British woman try to ask what a blanket was made out of in the stereotypical speak-louder-if-they-don’t-understand-you manner. It progressed a little like this…
“What is this made out of? What MAT-E-R-I-AL is it? It is LLAMA…? WOOL…?”
Honestly woman!! WTF?!?! It’s alpaca and just by saying “wool” louder won’t translate it into the language you should at least know a few words of if you’re visiting this country. (This was a half laughing at half you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me laugh…)
We met up with Gwen and Pete who came on a later bus and after eating we all headed up to a town called Ibarra about 30 min north just because…none of us had been there. We found a hostel and settled and took a little siesta (shopping is exhausting). Lacy and Gwen went out for cake, and ham and cheese, and tea earlier so the rest of us found a nice pizzeria where Pete and I got quite good calzones and the three of us shared a bottle of Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon which even by my less than experienced wine-tasting taste buds was a bit mild for my liking, although not unappreciated for the $11 it cost, which Pete paid for. We spend a quite night in the hostel just hanging out, watching the Matrix dubbed, chatting, and finishing our bottle of wine with the $6 chocolate that Pete had bought earlier in Otavalo.
The next morning we woke up at 7:00 to try to find the tourist train that ran a short ways out of Ibarra. We learned that instead of leaving at 8 it left at 8:30 and instead of being two hours round trip was in fact two hours each way and the train didn’t return until the afternoon. Because we had other plans for the day, and just wanted to get back to Quito earlier than 8 pm, we opted out of the train ride and instead too a bus up to the nearby lake and walked around it- which was in fact a pretty good walk (I’m guessing about an hour to an hour and a half.) It was a pretty place, unfortunately my camera has decided not to like and/or eat the life out of very quickly the batteries I put in it so… I managed about 4 pictures before it died, none of which were of the lake. Although others did get pictures I can steal. After our little excursion we split up again and Lacy and Gwen returned to Otavalo to get a few more things and Pete, Hilary and I heading to Cotacachi (the leather town) so I could look for a leather jacket. In about 20 minutes I found a jacket, left the store to browse around more, decided I didn’t want any other one, and returned to the store to buy it for $70. My logic, I would never be able to find a leather jacket for $70 in the States and it was badass and looked really good on me.
So, having accomplished what we came for and it being now about 1:30 or so, we found a place to eat very close by where Hilary and Pete each got hamburgers (Pete two) and I got a “Sanduche Mexicano” which I learned after ordering it was three pieces of bread, two steak patties, lettuce, and guacamole. It was huge. All of which were agreed to be delicious though… I also got a mora milkshake (which was probably made with milk and not ice cream as it was pretty thin, but still good.) Between the three of us, our meal came out to just under $15, which only made it that much better. Needless to say I didn’t need to eat anything else for the rest of the day. After lunch we hoped on a short bus ride back to Otavalo and changed buses to head back to Quito. We all got back around 6 pm and were quite exhausted we called it a day, and a weekend since we all had homework to do the next day (weird, I know), and headed to our separate homes. It was a good weekend because it was successful (purchases and eating wise) and at the same time relaxing- which we know is always a plus at this point in this country. 
