Otavalo

  Otavalo, Ecuador, Ecuador
Saturday, December 13, 2008

Friday 12 December - Otavalo

Just 2.5 hours north of Quito is Otavalo, a town famous for its Saturday market. We travelled on another local bus which we caught at the Terminus in the dodgy part of Old Town. It was only about ¼ mile from our hotel but we were advised to take a taxi for safety.

g Truck

We stayed in a hostel in Otavalo recommended by Lonely Planet. We met up with a group organised by the "Dragoman" tour company who were travelling around South America in a Mercedes truck. There were 16 backpackers in the group, mostly British, lead by a couple of Kiwis. It is a cheap way to travel the world but I think being stuck in a truck for 6 months with the same people would be a bit tiresome. It's bad enough being stuck in a marriage for over 40 years.

i Costumes

The striking thing about Otavalo is that the indigenous people, who are the majority, wear traditional dress every day. The women wear long black skirts, beautifully embroidered white blouses & shawls. The men wear ponchos, calf length white trousers & have their long black hair platted down their back. I saw one man wrap his waist length pigtail around his neck, like a scarf, before he put his coat on. Even the teenagers wear traditional dress, some bow to modern fashion & wear a jean jackets on top of it.

e Market

The Saturday market is massive, it takes over the main square & the surrounding streets. They set up at 6:00 in the morning & don't pack up until 6:00 at night. I hope they did a lot of trade before 11:00 when we got there, because I didn't see much trade in the afternoon. Nearly every stall was selling the same stuff - knitted sweaters, blankets, woolly hats & hand-made plastic trinkets. In one of the back streets we saw the tablecloths being "hand embroidered" on a computer controlled machine.

c Restaurant

We found a lovely family restaurant that did mouth watering steaks & great wine. They had a very good 6 piece band that played Simon & Garfunkel songs (... I'd rather be a hammer than a nail).
For the wine lovers out there, look out for Patagonian Malbec, a steal at $2.50 a bottle !