Otavalo

Of course we couldn’t leave Ecuador before visiting this famous indigenous market. The market dates back to pre-Inca times, when jungle products were brought up from the eastern lowlands (El Oriente) and traded for highland goods. Today the market serves locals who buy and barter animals, food and other essentials and tourists who are looking for crafts.

The market takes place every Saturday and we decided to travel to Otavalo already on Friday to guarantee an early visit to the market. We took a bus from Quito and passed some dramatic mountain scenery, which Fredrik and I missed to a great extent because we were sleeping like babies. Harry, however, was awake and observed with lots of enthusiasm the lovely scenery. Already earlier in Quito Harry asked about the name of the place where we would be going and I told him Otavalo but he understood, which we found out later, “Botavalo”. So Harry, the only person of our travel team being awake and watching the places we passed, saw after 2 hours of traveling a sign saying 1 km to Otavalo. Since he thought that we would be going to Botavalo he didn’t suspect anything and kept enjoying the scenery from his window seat. Half an hour later I woke up and asked a local on the bus if it was long to Otavalo and seconds later we went off the bus to catch another transport heading back to Otavalo. At the end we arrived with some detours but happy at Otavalo. At night we went to a restaurant where a local band was playing traditional “musica folklórica”. We enjoyed it a lot and bought even a CD.

On Saturday we were at the market already at 7.00 o’clock. Some traders were still working on preparing their stands while others were ready for the crowds of potential buyers. The atmosphere was relaxed and calm and the traders never felt too intrusive. Fredrik and I bought each a woolly hat for the cold nights that we are expecting in Peru on 4000 m, some nice colorful small sacs for odds and ends and Harry bought some hammocks, a pullover and a belt. Happy with our merchandises, we left the hustle and bustle at noon heading back to Quito.

Bye for now!!!

Sabrina and Fredrik