Ibarra

Ibarra is a hustling bustling town with a huge public market which sells absolutely everything. There are hundreds of rows of small stalls with meat, chicken, fruit, clothes, shoes and food. The clothing is not anything like the Otavalo market - mostly low end stuff. In the meat section there was all kinds of varieties of meat hanging and also steer heads that had been chopped off and were sitting in a nice row. There was also a freshly roasted whole pig that you could have pieces cut off.




Mary and I needed a cup of coffee (which is usually instant) so we sat down in a small booth and ordered one. She had to borrow two cups from a neighbours stall and poured us 2 cups of the most sickly sweat coffee which we forced down. It was a Tim's quadruple!



We have been feasting on fruit of all kinds and we stocked up here. Bunches of smll bananas, 20c, avocados and mangoes 20c, Papayos 25c, unbelievable! We have both lost about 5 lbs!

One of about 200 fruit stands

Everyone seems to be selling something even on the street - ice cream. clothes pegs, batteries and these two ladies selling strawberries, cherries and loganberries.

Mary saw the Dentist here today. His name is Bolanos and had been recommended on a site called Pro Ecuador, (an American living in Cotatachi nearby). He certainly lived up to his recommendation as he has a terrific pratice and spends three times as much time with you as the dentistsin Canada. Very highly trained, speaks English fairly well and is very thorough. Furthermore, he seems to give all the ladies a little kiss on the cheek when they leave. Caught Mary and Lorraine a little surprised the first time! Very South American. Mary had the first and serious stage of her work done, 5 implants and a few extractions. She chose to be knocked right out so our Dentist called in a very professional anethetist. She was out for about 4 hours and was feeling pretty sore but the proceedure was painless for her. Today is a little different as she has quite a bit of swelling and a bit of a black eye from an implant that went into her sinus - honest, I didn't hit her.

I had my first appointment today for my crown and a filling. Cute little ladies doing the cleaning and X rays. All smiles and giggles! My crown is going to be $400, implants $1000 ea, quite a difference to Canada. Fortunately the Dentist takes travellers cheques as very few people seem to. The Bank machines are a little unpredictable s some won't take our Bank card. Today we found a super machine that took our card and even had an English button!

Crime is obviously a problem down here and to prevent people loitering, sitting and hanging around window fronts, here is the Ecuadorian solution - very effective!

I wish I had the factory that makes steel roller doors to cover windows and doors. Every shop and business down every street in Ecuador seems to have a steel door tht they roll down at night and two extra heavy padlocks locking it at the bottom. Bars on windows don't seem to be adequate.