The best bar in Otavalo, Ecuador!

Good evening!

I finally managed to find good bar in Otavalo. Every tourist and local person that wants a good place to drink a beer, there is only one place in Otavalo. And that is the Bohemios Bar. It is a very friendly bar with lovely staff that is very helpfull and friendly. I went there twice, saturday and sunday and I had a good time, every time. They serve the best Equadorian beer, Pilsener!

This is the owner of the bar Mr Patricio (Patrick, for stupid people like me that speak not a word of spanish...) and his lovely girlfriend Roberta. He made me feel very welcome and went out of his way to try to speak english...

The bar itself is quite hard to find. It is only a small entrance with a board above it and if you don't look too closely you will miss it. You can see Mr Patricio on the balcony... They do drinks and they do some good food. They have showarma and all sorts of local food. They also do, and this I found quite surprising, waterpipes. You can smoke a good shish there... It also says on the sign out front tha they do live music but I guess I was unlucky and there was nothing on this time...

This is the view from the terrace and I am sure the wall painting says something good about Atavalo but as I speak next to no English I don't really know what it says...

This is me enjoying the local brew. It is called Pilsener and is very nice. It is very cheap in this bar, well, for stupid foreign people like me hahahahaha! If you are into music, they have a wicked computer system that has all the regional music on there, they just let you loose on their PC and you pick what you like....

This is the owner again, Mr Patricio. All in all, even though I was not that impressed with Otavalo to start of with... (Mainly because I could not find a bar...) after being in the Bohemios bar I have to change my opinion of Otavalo, it is not so quiet after all. Patricio, thank you very much for making me feel welcome. Thanks to your staff as well. They know what they are doing, even though most of the foreign people like me, don't speak the lingo... sorry about that. Next time when I go back I will make sure to go back to this place. And anyone looking for a local watering hole, this is the place to be in Otavalo!

Take care and keep this place going! Thank you very much,

Alex in Otavalo, Ecuador.

In Otavalo, Ecuador...

Afternoon all,

OK, now I am in Otavalo. Otavalo is small town in the Andes near the Imbabura volcano. The landscapes are beautiful here, massive mountains, extinct volcanoes, stunning. I am here working for Lafarge commissioning two kiln cameras.

This is the centre of Otavalo. I am staying in El Indio Inn, which is a small hotel with a restaurant. It is hard work walking, around here as the town is at 2600 mtr altitude. I can notice the lack of oxygen. When I climb to the burner platform I am completely out of breath... (Yeah, yeah, less of the fat b'stard jokes please...)

This is the Imbabura Volcano. It is shrouded in clouds most of the time so I am still waiting to get a piccie of the snow covered top... It is 3100 mtr high...

This is the view from the front gate of the Lafarge cement plant...

This was on the road from Quito to Otavalo. I arrived in Quito a few hours late as Aerolineas Galapagos had conveniently changed their flight schedule and cancelled my flight that day. Luckily they had another flight a bit later so got there in the end... My driver Mr Carlos was very helpfull pointing out local landmarks etcetera...

This was the outskirts of Quito, the capital. The place looked very much like any other big city in South America. It was nice and warm weather which was to change as we made our way to Otavalo, which is a two hour drive through the foothills of the Andes...

Again the outskirts of Quito...

This was Guayaquil airport where I spend a few extra hours care of my friends at Aerogal...

The food here is pretty good. It involves a lot of maize in many different disguises, cooked, roasted, grilled, boiled, in soups etc... Otavalo unfortunately is not blessed with any form of nightlife. There are few, if any bars or clubs. I have been informed that there is some nightlife in Imbarra which is three quarters of an hour up the road by taxi... Can't say I am too bothered by the lack of nightlife, I can manage with a few beers with my meal in Otavalo...

OK, I will post later with some more piccies if the clouds ever lift. On the way from the airport to here we went through the heaviest rainstorm ever. It bucketed down and parts of the road washed away, 'Rainman' strikes again. At some point we were slowly cruising through at least a foot of dirty brown water trying not to get washed down the ravine... Never mind, Mr Carlos got us safely to Otavalo. It has been raining here everyday since I have been here, that seems to be the norm here...

Oh, just a little whinge at my favourite airline, AirPukeKLM... On the way out I had the great fortune to sit right next to a 6 month old baby that managed to exersize her vocal cords for most of the 10 hour flight from Amsterdam to Quito...Lovely... Never mind, I managed to get some sleep as i was wearing industrial strength ear plugs. Mind you, I could still hear the little B^$&$rd....

Cheerio,

Alex.

Off to Equador...

Afternoon all!

I'm back on the road again. After a un-enjoyable trip to Saudi Arabia the company sent me out to Ecuador. I have been in this place before but that was a few years ago now. My first job was in Guayaquil. This is a big modern city on the River Guaya. The work itself was pretty standard. The site guy who I worked with, Mr Roberto Quiroz, was kind enough to take me out in the evening to the Malecon 2000. This was Guayaquils millenium project. The took 4 km of old river front and did it all up. And I must say they did a good job. In the evening there are loadsa people strolling about in the lovely weather. There are a lot of restaurants and bars and it all looks rather nice down there.

This was some governmental monument for something...

This was the view north upriver along the Malecon 2000...

If you look closely here you can see an iguana in the middle of the picture... Only a small one, they have loadsa big ones crawling around on the cement factory...

This was the place where I worked, the Holcim Cerro Blanco plant...

This was on the road to the airport in Guayaquil. I had a good time there. I stayed in a ace hotel. The Four Points Sheraton is an excellent base for getting a feel of Guayaquil. They have a bar in there where there is live music most nights. When my job was finished there I travelled on to Quito and Otavalo. More on them in the next posting.

Cheerio,
Alex.