Monday 28 May 2012

Day 62 - Otavalo, Ecuador (19 May 2012)

Day 62 – Otavalo, Ecuador (19 May 2012)

We wake this morning to an overcast day, that is perfect conditions for wandering around the biggest market in South America!  We get ready for the day and stumble downstairs to the restaurant for our breakfast.  We are paying US$12 each a night and breakfast is included in the price.  The Lonely Planet advises that this breakfast is fantastic and is the reason why the hostel is still running.  Well, the Lonely Planet is not lying. We get three options for breakfast, one stands out above the others in a big way! It is pancakes with maple and chocolate syrup and fruit salad, it is fantastic! We are getting used to these pancake and fruit salad breakfasts! Anyway, this isn’t why we came to Otavalo, we are here for the Saturday markets! We get out the front door of the hostel and look around and to our amazement the markets begin about a block from the hostel.  Very handy indeed! We walk around the markets just looking as we can’t really purchase anything because of limited room in our backpacks.  If we find something we can’t walk away from, well then it will be different story, we will find room!!! The market is full of different crafts including tapestries, blankets, ponchos, sweaters, hammocks, carvings, beads, original paintings, all types of food and alot more!  The men and women who are at each stall are all dressed in traditional clothing which included long single pigtails, calf length white pants, rope sandals, reversible gray or blue ponchos and dark felt hats for the men and embroided blouses, long black skirts and folded head cloths for the women.  The market stretches for blocks and is centred around the main plaza of Otavalo.  As the morning wears on, the clouds thicken and finally the rain starts falling.  Ann and I decide this is a good opportunity to have a break, so we walk back to our hostel and have a sit down and pick up our jackets!  As we sit, the rain gets heavier.  We decide this rain is not going to subside so we once again venture out.  We look around and get saturated at the same time.  The stall operators have seen rain before, they are prepared with their tarpaulins which were up in a flash to protect their merchandise.   After lunch we have made it around the whole market, it has taken us four hours and we havnt even stopped to take a closer look at things since we are not buying! It is a very big market.  By this time the rain had got very heavy and a few stalls were starting to pack up as the crowds were also thinning out.  We take one last look at the market, buy a couple of small items and call it a day ourselves.  There is not much else to do in Otavalo, especially on a rainy day, so we head back to the hostel and watch a movie.  We round out the day by heading out for dinner.  We go to a Mexican restaurant in the main plaza which is on the second story.  By this time the rain had stopped.  As we were eating dinner we looked out the window and saw the mammoth effort of taking down all the market stalls and cleaning up the streets.  Funny to think that this happens every Saturday!

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