Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-Di-Ay Today Is Market Day, Cock Ring
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
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112
221
Trip End
Ongoing
Otavalo,
Ecuador
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Ecuadorians are teeny tiny people and wonderfully friendly too. There are many babies here. We observed the daily comings and goings as the bus chugged away through the Andean highlands picking up and dropping off people and produce. There was a majority indigenous representation on the bus, the most evident feature of theirs being their traditional dress. Some of the men wear long single pigtails, calf length white shorts, rope sandals, reversible grey or blue ponchos and adorable dark felt hats in brown, pixie forest green or classic black. the women are very striking with bright white embroidered blouses, long black skirts and shawls and folded head cloths or the cute hats. The dramatic mountain scenery was dotted with tiny villages.
We were met in Octavalo by the Scottish Sophia and Otavaleno local Roberto, hosts of Hostel Chasqui and probably the most friendly hosts in the world. These guys gave us maps, showed us around, told us about the local myths and shamans, carried our baggage around, offered us a free room when a fiesta rocked up downstairs with a DJ, invited us to go out with them to watch a band and even drove us to the bus station and offered to wait with us. There was a rainbow pride flag on the rooftop of the hotel, indigenous we believe.
Apparently there are many shamans living in the town Iluman close to Otavalo and the services they offer are a cleansing process that includes rubbing a live guinea pig over the visitors body and then killing and cutting open the rodent to observe any discolouration in the organs.
Kate takes the pigs for a walk
The organs of the rodent are supposed to correspond with any dis-ease in the visitors system and then another process is done to heal. The other more humane service offered involves the rolling of an egg over the visitorīs naked body.Whilst enjoying a cinnamon- apple tea on the rooftop, we spotted what looked to be a giant, inflatable beer bottle surrounded by a large group of chanting locals. On closer inspection we discovered an awesome jumping castle and giant inflatable alligator whose mouth was filled with screaming local children. The beer bottle gig complete with live orchestra band was in aid of some kind of trade show where scantily clad promo girls offered free samples of confectionery, drinks and sugar amongst other random items we couldnīt identify. There was one girl who looked to be going for the Miss Trade Show title including full make-up, orange lycra bike shorts and matching crop top, diamante jewels dripping from the neck and ears and blow dried hair. This Miss Vitamin C (hence the Orange costume) was giving out samples of vitamin pills so we took the random pills and also scored a photo of the lady posing.
I still canīt sleep in past 2am due to altitude so i stayed up and listened to church bells and waited for the sun to rise over the town. We consider the town to be the perfect sized town (population 26 000) and it seems to be sacred space with a volcanic backdrop of eight volcanoes including Cotacachi and Impabura creating a magical atmosphere.
city view from Hotel Chasqui
Ta-ra-ra-boom-di-ay, today is market day and we had heard that Otavaloīs market is one of the most important ones in South America. The market dates back to pre-Inca times when jungle products were brought up from the Eastern lowlands and traded for highland goods. The present day market has locals who buy and barter animals, food and other essentials and also tourists looking for handicrafts. I knew it was to be a special day when dawn saw locals wandering down from the hills on foot carrying chickens and goats and pulling pigs along with ropes, all heading down to try their luck at selling the animals and birds at the market. Others were lugging babies and huge bundles of crafts. This day was what we would identify as the quintessential South American travel day.
We set off very early to the soundtrack of traditional Andean music and skipped down to the fresh food market first where we were rewarded with an explosion of colour provided by the multitude of grains, herbs, beans, pulses, powders, fruits and vegetables and everything else that was laid out on tables and in sacks and baskets in the first sun of the day. There was some juicy looking chicken feet for sale, for soup i believe. Cattle hoof soup is all the rage too. Here we got our first close up glimpses of the beautiful indigenous women and men of Ecuador. The elderly have much life etched into their faces and the children are sweet. The traditional gold chains of beads strung around the ladies necks glistened in the morning sun.
corn and washing
We walked through Plaza Bolivar where locals were having an early morning bath in the fountains and trees are trimmed into Edward Scissorhand shapes. We listened to angelic singing coming from sunday morning mass held in the church. Outside the church there was rosary beads being sold next to faux US dollars. We dropped a few coins into a beggarīs dish because he had a crazy flesh eating disease. These are the types of beggars we usually give coins to, the ones who are physically in pain. There were lots of elderly beggars.
Next we hit the animal market where we watched the activity of men and women milling around with animals, inspecting, haggling and chatting in the crispy mountain air. I was able to score quite a few good photo shots because everyone was very involved in the market trade business. We walked around in the mud and shit and i took some pigs for a walk and tried to sell them. the sound of pigs screetching filled the air. Fun times were had by all. There was some fairly rustic food choices up for grabs including whole pig with eyes sewn shut and fly-infested rat burgers.
The Saturday market itself is indeed a large one, there was no way you could see it all in one day, sensory overloading and stimulating we didnīt know where to start. Stalls were set up in every nook and cranny of plaza de Ponchos. We shopped our way into a frenzy as we discussed goods with the women vendors and bargained for items already dirt cheap by our standards.
jumping castle kids
We bought alot of gear including hand-knitted raw woollen scarves, socks and beanies, bags, trilby style hats, a fake Panama hat, some silver jewellery. The catch of the day was a 1.5mx1.5m canvas painting of a shamanīs head with dancing people and we think it represents consciousness. We also bought a wooden mask of a womanīs head with three sets of horns protruding from her face, both by the same artist, beautiful. the other thing we wanted was one of the giant wooden spoons that you could whack someone really hard with or use to mix up a really big witches brew in a cauldron. I tried on some furry pants that were similar to chaps for bull riding, looking good.The famous Shanandoah Pie Shop on Salinas street on the plaza lured us in and we chowed down on the most decadent pies in the flavours of banana and blackberry served with ice-cream. Lush. We also tried a naranjilla juice which is a tasty and refreshing green fruit found in Ecuador.
We caught a taxi up to Parque Condor which is a refuge for birds located on Pucara Alto. We got a glimpse in of Lago San Paulo and then paid our driver to wait for us until the bird demonstration was over. We spent quite some time with the birdsm some were huge. There was some impressive birds including the Barred Hawk, Black crested Buzzard Eagle, Harpy Eagle who was using itīs claws to tear away at piece of steak, American Kestral and Andean Condors. The owls were our favourite and were present in the species of mottled owl that looked like a furby toy, two barn owls who were cuddled up together, a European Eagle Owl and two Snowy owls which had intense orange eyes.
giant beer inflatable
The demonstration was good with a guy wearing a glove and directing the birds to fly away over the valley then return for a snack. When we went to leave we noticed that our taxi driver had bailed without us and pocketed our $10USD, our fault for paying. We scored another taxi who charged us half of what the first guy did and asked him to take us to El Lechero which is a sacred tree that looks like a giant bonsai plant. There are quite a few of these trees (14 we think)located around the town and the indigenous people believe that they have special powers. The one we saw was called the Tree Of Life. The Lonely (Liars) Planet describes the tree as being a stump, it was in fact a stunning specimen of a tree. The taxi driver delivered us back to our hotel and i managed to steal two new jokers i had never seen before from a deck of cards before dinner.
We ate trout with a sauce made from local seeds and salad at an organic restaurant called Buena Vista before ending up at a cock fight in town. It is not as though we were really into seeing a poor cock be killed in front of us but we were interested in how the competition worked. The cock ring is a big deal on Saturday nights in Otavalo and the patrons were mainly men. There was a bar open to add to the excitement. We were the only gringos in the room. As far as we could work out, men would buy a cock or bring one into the room in a special cockfighting cock bag, yes, say it again, a cockfighting cock bag. The cocks were weighed in a sling and some were given liquids. A woman was out front selling cockfighting paraphenalia including magazines, spikes for the cockīs legs and various potions. Cocks would enter the ring which was surrounded by a grandstand. There was two fellas who would tease the cocks and get them crazy for fighting, put some kind of liquid under their wings and on their tongues and tape sharp metal spikes onto their legs before allowing them to go nuts fighting each other till one meets itīs death. The cock trainers would treat them like human boxers by putting them in a corner, petting them and fiddling with their spikes. Horrendous. We stayed for two fights and that was enough cock for us.
