The Markets of Otavalo, Ecuador

Our next destination was Otavalo, Ecuador, famous for its overwhelmingly HUGE market on Saturdays. We arrived late Thursday night and we all went separate ways for most of Friday. My parents took a bus to a nearby village with local leather artisans and took a boat tour around a small lake. I wandered around Otavalo people-watching and admiring the daily market bustling with locals dressed in the traditional style - men with long black ponytails wearing Panama hats and women with long blue skirts, fashionable belts, and blankets on their heads - all topped off with several gold teeth.

Michael and I, sporting our new Panama hats

Michael, on the other hand, took a bus to San Antonio de Ibarra, a nearby village with local woodworking artisans. Sometimes I don´t know why I let Michael shop on his own. He goes all the way to South America, tours through fantastic wood working shops . . . and buys a hand-carved wooden figurine of the Abominable Snowman. Um... what are we going to do with a wooden Yeti?

Anyways, we met up in the afternoon and went to a local pizza joint that reportedly had live music. The pizza, wine and conversation were wonderful as we waited and waited... and waited... for the music. Two hours late, and clearly drunk, the band of three showed up. One played a traditional guitar made from a turtle, the lead man sang and played traditional wind pipes, and the third played a normal guitar. They were really enjoyable and the drunkenness only seemed to add to their fun-loving nature. We went home happy.

On Saturday, the market exploded into a seemingly never-ending maze of little stands or blankets selling crafts, blankets, panchos, hats, scarves and just about anything else we could want. We shopped and shopped until the early afternoon when we all ran out of money and energy.

The rest of the day was spent traveling by bus from Otavalo to Quito and then Quito to Mindo. It went surprisingly smoother than we expected and got to Mindo by dinnertime.