We're heading to San José de Minas. Want to come along?

This past Tuesday, after a 9:30 a.m. Bible study in Ibarra, Karen and I grabbed a bite to eat at the food court in the mall and then caught a bus to Otavalo.  In Otavalo, we caught another bus going to San José de Minas.  To get to Minas from Otavalo, you wind around a mountain or two or three on a narrow rock road and take pictures like mad out the bus window.  It's absolutely gorgeous!  Due to a number of things - bumpy road, camera delay, unexpected turns in the road right when I was about to take a picture, having to take every picture through the somewhat grimy bus window - a good many of my pictures didn't turn out.  However, here is a sampling of photos that "describe" our trip.

Greenhouses galore!

I found out that pretty much all of the greenhouses in this part of the country grow flowers, primarily roses.

Perhaps not exactly where you'd expect to see a cow?

The beginning of the fun road

When I looked at my pedometer after arriving back in Quito on Tuesday night, it showed that we had walked 5 1/2 miles that day.  I asked Karen about it because I certainly didn't think we had walked that much.  We figured it up and decided that we had more likely walked two miles at most.  Then it came to me: the bumpy road.  All our jouncing must have added several miles worth of steps to my daily total!  

Meeting another vehicle caused quite a hold-up.  There's only room for one, so our friend, the truck driver had to back up for quite a ways so we could get through.

It's the same road as the one we're on.

This is how you get to the part below.

Karen and I were wishing afterwards that we had counted how many of these turns we had to make.  I must compliment the bus driver on a job well done!  

This is taken from the curve.  On the left is where we just came from.  On the right is where we're going.

Another one

Kyle, this one is for you.  :-)

The corn is quite tall in these parts!  

Once we arrived in Minas, we hired a pick-up truck to take us out into the country where Sra. M lives.  This is the path back to her house.  

The view from the trail off to our right

The view from the kitchen window

Cuyes

Remember them?  

They live in the kitchen until their time comes.