After a very long trip via Aero Mexico and an 11 hour layover in Mexico City, we arrived, tired, but very happy to be here.
The town has not changed much since our last visit, except for a few improvements to some of the streets to make them more “touristy”. This is still one of the cleanest towns in all of Ecuador.
We arrived in town mid morning after a two hour drive from the Airport in Quito. Much of the highway has been improved since our last visit. There is a toll booth about half way – $1. Most of the major routes in Ecuador are tolled this way.
We arrived much earlier than planned, so not much was open for business yet in town. We found a small coffee shop (Serendipidy) where we had a delicious breakfast. We then went to a local cell phone store and purchased 2 sim chips for our unlocked phones. $5 gets you a card with preloaded call time and texting. To reload, you stop at any store that sells the service, in this case Claro, and buy extra minutes. The whole process took us about 5 minutes – very easy and quick, not like the huge monopolies in Canada. We only had to produce 1 piece of ID and that was it.
We then were able to call our rental agent and notify her we had arrived. We met the landlord outside the apartment and were checked in to a very nice 1 bedroom unit.
We couldn’t wait to get into bed for a much needed sleep. We woke up about 4:00 and Giselle wanted to head over to her friend’s bar, El Secreto de Jeanine. We stopped in for a couple of beers, chatted with some Canadian tourists and then went down the street and found a nice pizza joint for dinner.
The next day we awoke after about a 12 hour sleep and headed to the market for some groceries. The market in Cotacachi is located beside the bus station and is the place to go for fresh produce, meats, cheeses, whatever… It was very busy, Sunday being one of the days that many local farmers come to sell their produce.
We spent a total of $8. This is what we came home with.
We spent the rest of the morning trying on leather jackets and locally made shoes. Cotacachi is the leather capital of Ecuador.