Rural views and small towns

Above is the small town of Ingapirca. I am standing at the ruins of the Canari Temple of the Moon and looking toward the town.

Elderly woman on a rural road

My hosts extraordinaire, Ana Maria and Ted

Ted, holding up the street sign. We were visiting some of the smaller towns around Otavalo. This is typical of the older cities and towns, cobblestone streets, colonial buildings, attractive places to walk, pleasant town squares and plazas, often in front of cathedrals and churches.

Today this hacienda is a bed and breakfast style inn. At one time it belonged to AnaMaria's maternal grandparents. We stopped just for a walk around. This is in the northern part of the Ecuadorian highlands, not far from Ibarra.

Rural area with llama. It was the wet season while I was there. We didn't have much rain, but often had clouds, fog, and sprinkles.

Roads are often cobblestone. This is true not just in rural areas like this, but in the older parts of the cities.

Peeking through the open door of a convent.

AnaMaria's second cousin and her sons own this farm. Today the main crop is roses for export to Russia. They are also raising some race horses. Veba fixed lunch for us, knowing we were stopping on our way to one of our explorations. Chino took Ted and me on a tour of the farm.

This is one of the small towns near Otovalo and is famous for its weavings.

Tile rooftop with agricultural fields in the distance. Crops are grown on steep hillsides....these are mild compared to many I saw.