We needed a day to catch up on life so that’s where we spent most of our morning. Accomplished some laundry, booked some future hostels, and started trying to figure out timing for our future adventures within Ecuador. It was good timing for this too, as the morning was full of downpouring rain outside…

After around noon though, we started to get a little sick of getting cooped up in our hostel room. By this time, the torrential downpours also had started to ease up so it was a good time to head outside and grab some fresh air. Without any real destination or goal in mind we just started walking around and ran into a different local market from the one we had visited the other day on our walking tour.

As we walked by the different stalls we noticed some foods that we hadn’t tried yet and chose to stop by for a quick bite. This first stop involved Tortilla de Choclo (corn tortilla), Bolon de Verde (plantain ball with pork inside), and washed it down with Morocho (corn drink with lots of cinnamon).

Once we walked out of the market there was a lady selling these small hard boiled eggs. We had seen them all over the place in Peru and kept meaning to try them there but never actually did. This time we took full advantage of the coincidence and bought some. They ended up being Huevos de Codorniz (quail) and she sprinkled some salt and cumin on them. Great snack!

Now again walking around town aimlessly, it was lunchtime, so we ran by a restaurant offering a couple local dishes we had read about. They were each only 1$ so we had to give them a shot! Alejandro had Guatita, traditionally beef tripe with a peanut based sauce. This time the peanut sauce was there (Mmmmm) but unfortunately only had potato and no tripe… Cassie had the Seco de Carne, which contrary to it’s name (seco means dry), is actually a type of beef stew. They were both pretty good, especially for the price.

This time it was only 1 or 2 blocks dow when we ran into a food cart we hadn’t seen yet but seemed intriguing. Mango Michelada! There wasn’t any beer in these, just green mango juice, mango pieces, lime, and salt. The perfect thing we needed to wash down our last few snacks.

By this time we were feeling a new mission for the day, keep trying as many new/different foods as we could! We were having a lot of fun, and at this point, we still had spent less than $10. Next stop was back to around the main square where there were supposed to be vendors selling a special type of ice cream-like dish called espumilla, though it’s not actually ice cream, plus it’s not cold and doesn’t melt! Unfortunately it was still raining on and off, so when we got to the square, there were none of these vendors around…

We had a list in the back of our minds though of different foods we wanted to try, though, and by luck, one of the stores was advertising one of the things on our list called Corviche, again, only 1$! A description online said it was a mix between fried plantain ball and stuffed wanton. Traditionally stuffed with Corvina (type of fish) giving it it’s name. It was surprisingly delicious and much bigger than we had originally anticipated.

After the Corviche, we headed back out towards the church and we saw the woman with Espumilla that we had been searching for! We ordered a mixed cone of guava and strawberry with freshly shaved coconut. It was like a mix between whipped cream and meringue- pretty yummy!

By this point, we were filling up, but we still wanted to try one more food called a Quimbolote. Turns out they are more of a breakfast food, so we had a little trouble finding them in the afternoon, but we eventually succeeded. They are a sweet kind of tamale made of corn and wheat flour, eggs, butter, and raisins.

We had decided that this was enough to eat for the day and started on the way home, but Alejandro had 45 cents that were burning a hole in his pocket. We saw some Pan de Yuca for 25 cents each. Though we had eaten these many times in Colombia, we decided to try the Ecuador version. Turned out it was pretty much the same.

This was the last thing that we ate for the day before taking the scenic route back to our hotel and hanging out for the evening. We were stuffed but pretty happy with all of the new things that we had tried, all for less than $5.50 per person!