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Hello from Otavalo! We left Quito on Friday afternoon and made our way to Otavalo (a 2 hour bus ride that turned out to be 3). Otavalo is a small farming town (north of Quito) that is famous for it´s indigenous Saturday market. We arrived at dusk. Braden was in a panic because a friend of ours from the language school in Quito was robbed (at gunpoint) outside of his hostel the night before. A general rule of thumb: don´t stay out late at night kissing girls (our friend, not Braden). Anyways, near the bus terminal in Otavalo we managed to come across some wrinkled vegetables and crumbly bread for dinner. Soon after, we hired a taxi and headed half way up a mountain to our hostel (La Luna).
La Luna was an amazing place. Situated on the side of a mountain (4km outside of town) and next to many small farms, our hostel resembled the English countryside instead of Ecuador. Hedges and bushes separated fields, not fences. Rolling green hills, numerous cows and pigs dotted the landscape. The hostel was run by a very friendly young couple, with two really cute kids and 4 huge dogs. There were hammocks outside of the main dining room where you could lie and read while overlooking Otavalo and the farms. The food was great (we didnt eat our wrinkled veggies after all).
Finding it easy to make new friends, 5 of us headed into town on Saturday morning for the market. It was a one hour walk (beautiful scenery) on a rocky road with a few shortcuts through crop fields (as an interesting side note, all the roads in Otavalo are made from large stones). The market itself was huge, consisting of a big square and numerous side streets. Many vendors were crammed together in small tents, waving and yelling as you walked past. Common goods for sale included: textiles, jewellry, chickens, panama hats, produce, fried food, and art. Finding good quality products at the right price was quite a task. Most vendors start their asking price 3 or 4 times higher than what it is actually worth. Interestingly, some vendors refuse to bargain, while others will quickly drop their price the minute you seem disinterested. After numerous stalls, Maya found a sun hat and Braden found a light cotton shirt and pants. The sun was intense all day and by 2pm we were ready to head back to La Luna.
Some quick sidenotes about Otavalo: the sidewalks look like they are made of giant lego (blue, red and yellow); no buses pass through the center of town so it is much cleaner than Quito; and for the first time we were able to try traditional Ecuadorian food (fried corn, boiled maize, onion and tomato salad, some sort of potato dumpling, fried eggs, and chili sauce).
Before leaving Otavalo we took a quick trip up to Lago Mojanda with a mother and daughter from America who were staying at the hostel. Had an interesting experience bargaining with the cab driver for the round trip fare. The hostel had advertised the taxi price to the lake as $15 but the driver wanted upwards of $20. Our friends refused to budge. We eventually settled on $20, and we both marvelled at American conversational tactics. We then spent the rest of the cab ride home hearing the driver´s life story. At the lake, Braden headed off on his own to try to climb the Fuya Fuya volcanoe (extinct), but only made it half way up before he collapsed of exhaustion (not literally). We were around 3500 m above sea level (the air was very thin - just walking at that elevation is somewhat difficult).
Off to Baños to see an active volcano (yaaaaay). Miss you and love you lots,
xoxo
Braden and Maya
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