Nostros salimos manana en la manana a Banos.
We jumped in a cab from our Hostel in Quito towards the bus station 1 hr away on route to Otavalo a town two hours north. Once we arrived at the bus station we had to find the bus to Otavalo. It wasn’t too hard as there were men screaming OTAVALO OTAVALO OTAVALO!, we paid the whole $2.00 and got on the bus. The ride to Otavalo was quite stunning, the country side is filled with large green covered mountains with houses or farms sporadically placed. One part of the trip that was amusing was that at every stop someone selling food would get on and walk down the bus then sit until the next stop and get off. We didn’t buy anything but we now know for next time! Getting off at a stop not at the station is also pretty interesting, the bus slows down to a roll then the people have to jump out, they don’t fully stop. It would be difficult for us to do that with our big bags so hopefully our stops are always full ones. After we arrived in Otavalo we loaded up our bags and walked to the first hostel that had vacancies. It was pretty nice, hammocks in the court yard, breakfast included, comfy beds, and close to the market, which was our first priority. We stayed there for three nights (Friday-Sunday). Friday evening we strolled through the city checking out the market and restaurants. Saturday morning we woke up around 8:00am and went to the restaurant for the continental breakfast. We were pleasantly surprised that we had three different options to choose from. We both picked the pancake with fruit and chocolate with coffee. It was yummy and loaded with fruit! We then headed out to the market. Wednesdays and Saturdays are the main market days so the place was booming. There were venders throughout all the roads connecting to the main plaza. It was amazing! There was so much stuff to look at and buy. The Otavalo market is very old and very famous, people come from all over the area to shop. A large portion of the products were hand made by indigenous people. There was tons of stuff made from alpaca: hats, scarves, and ponchos with a huge range in colours. Every booth seemed to also have a huge selection of handmade bracelets. We found two different booths that had unique handmade woven bracelets. One had a man making the jewelry right then out of cow horn, cow bone, and a type of tree. I bought a bracelet made from cow horn! We were really impressed how the people packed up at the end of the day. They loaded sacks that were approximately 5 ft by 3.0 ft (larger than the average person here) then strapped them to their back using rope tied around their forehead. We complain about our 30lb bags while they carry loads over 100lbs tied around their head. We had lots of fun throughout the market then went back to the hostel and laid in the hammocks and read...so relaxing. Sunday we woke up, ate then headed out to our tour that we booked on Saturday. Our guide, Washington, is a local guide who lives in Otavalo and has been doing tours for many years in the area. We were expecting there to be other people on the tour but we were the only ones going. Our first stop was to the amazing Peguche Falls. A short hike brought us up from an indigenous village to the falls where we stayed and embraced the mist of the falls. Washington told us stories of how the indigenous culture revered the falls and how every year a festival brings thousands of people to the falls in the middle of the night for a ritual cleansing. We had our own cleansing while standing in the misty wake of the falls and it was my (Drew`s) second shower of the day, believe it or not. After the falls we were off to the breathtaking volcano crater lake, Laguna Cuicocha. On our way out of Otavalo our guide spotted three friends that he attended school with two years ago and he asked if we would mind if they came along for the ride. The more the merrier we said, and the three girls hopped in the truck with us. They were all very friendly, spoke English and wanted to take Cou and I to the bar for cervesas. The ride to the lake lookout was bumpy and steep and was followed by a short hike from the roadway to the lookout. Laguna Cuicocha is a 3km wide crater lake that sits at the foot of the Cotocachi Volcano in the Andes. Years ago, the volcano that once stood where Laguna Cuicocha is now was once one of the highest volcanoes in Ecuador until it erupted in massive phreatic fashion 3100 years ago. Kabooooom! After our little tour of Laguna Cuicocha we visited the little town of Cotacachi for a short walking tour where we met a little old man in an even older army uniform. We waved goodbye to our geriatric friend and continued on to an indigenous musical instrument making home, where we were showed how the locals would fashion flutes out of bamboo. We also got to listen to some pretty good folk songs courtesy of our guide and the flute maker. That pretty much sums up our tour of the Otavalo area. We spent the afternoon tying up a few loose ends and eating a pollo completo sandwich (a three layer breaded chicken sandwich with ham, fried egg, cheese, tomatoes, onions, mayo, mustard and of course bacon). Cou wasn`t exactly thrilled.
Nostros salimos manana en la manana a Banos.
8 Comments
|
Get updates by email!
Archives
January 2014
Categories
All
|