Maya, Geoff and Vanessa, joined me for an adventure in Otavalo, which is possibly the most well-known tourist attraction in Ecuador because of the huge artisan market. There are more vendors on Saturdays, but because of it's popularity, the market runs everyday of the week. We left after class on Thursday and took a two hour bus to the north from Quito. As we got into town it was raining heavily, so we only walked about 4 blocks from the bus station to find a hostel. Then we met up with Morgan, a CIMAS student from Minnesota who is continuing her internship in Otavalo from last quarter. I got to know her a bit over winter break in Cusco, where we met up with lots of other friends for Christmas Day dinner. On Thursday night she took us to her favorite bar, called The Red Pub and afterwards Vanessa and I discovered the wonders of The Pie Shop, which is probably the only one of it's kind in South America!
On Friday Geoff, Vanessa and I woke up at 6 am and before breakfast we hiked to "El Lechero" a magical tree on a hill above Otavalo that also is a great viewpoint for the Cotacachi and Imbabura Volcanoes and Lake San Pablo. It was amazing to be able to see the sun coming up on the mountains with a mostly clear sky!
Sunrise hitting Volcan Cotacachi on Friday morning
The magical Lechero Tree!
Lago San Pablo from near El Lechero Tree
After getting back down the hill, we picked up Maya from the hotel room, ate breakfast at an open air food market, and then headed to the bus station to catch a bus to the nearby town of Quiroga. Unfortunately, Maya was still not feeling very well from the day before, so instead of going hiking with us, she went back to the hostel to rest. Vanessa, Geoff and I continued to Quiroga in bus for about 20 minutes and then caught a taxi to take us to Laguna Cuicocha (Guinea Pig Lake) in the Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve. For the next 4+ hours, we hiked around the complete circumference of the lake and enjoyed the incredible views of the countryside, volcanoes, islands and waterfalls. We even found some wild blueberries to munch on! Later in the afternoon, it started to rain, so we caught a taxi back to Quiroga. From there, Geoff headed back to Otavalo and then to Quito that night. Vanessa and I rode the taxi to Cotacachi and when we got there, a parade was just starting!
Laguna Cuicocha-elevation 11,300 ft.
Waterfalls on the side of the lake
Another jumping picture!
We watched the parade for over an hour and it was so neat to see all of the different dancing groups with great music blasting out of the back of pickup trucks. It was one of those cultural events that I knew I wouldn´t be able to experience in any other place and we had just showed up out of the blue-what luck! After the parade we stopped in at Jambi Mascari, an Indigenous community center that we visited with CIMAS a few weeks before, but we were unable to buy the books we wanted because no one was working that day. We caught a bus back to Otavalo and then stopped in at the hotel to check on Maya. Then Vanessa and I ate dinner in the Plaza de Ponchos, walked around looking for live music, but it was much too early, ate more pie and went to bed early to rest our tired legs!
Parade in Cotacachi-the waltzing ladies (they were all women!)
Mariachi dance group
Michael Jackson "Thriller" tribute
On Saturday morning we woke up early again to check out three markets in Otavalo. First we visited the animal market, where locals bring their livestock to sell and trade. It was a wild sight, with a huge variety of animals: chickens, guinea pigs, pigs, sheep, cows, llamas and more! Then we stopped by the food market for breakfast at a little old woman´s coffee stand. Our last market of the day was the famous artisanal market that extends out of the Plaza de Ponchos into the surrounding streets on Saturdays. We perused the stands for a few hours and I bought some bright stripped rainbow clown pants! At about 11am we got on a bus and headed back to Quito so we could make it to Geoff´s family party in the afternoon.
Pigs at the animal market on Saturday morning
View of part of the animal market from above with Volcan Imbabura in the background
No comments:
Post a Comment