2520m
It was a leisurely start to day as Fran and I walked to the dining room for breakfast. No people. Apparently breakfast is held in a different room of the hacienda, one which used to house the textile workings. There certainly were a lot more people in attendance than at last night’s dinner and the hall was packed.
Javier picked us up at 9am and we drove the short distance to Cotacachi, one of the volcanoes surrounding Otavalo. This one had a caldera which was filled with water creating a stunning lake. We walked around the rim for several hours, enjoying the sunshine and looking for wildlife. We asked about condors to be told that Ecuador only has around 150 of them in the state; Peru has around 250 and Chile has around 400. There are only around 1000 Andean condors left in the wild. Needless to say, we didn’t see any.
Nearby in the town also called Cotacachi there are a number of leather workers so we had an opportunity to have a look at the shops. Otavalo is one of the places that a lot of US citizens come to retire and the town looks it. Coffee shops and cafes abound on street corners, and most of the locals know some English. Fran managed to find a belt design that she liked but it was way too big. ‘No problem’, cut the end off, refashion, add new holes, $8 please!
The afternoon saw us go into Otavalo to have a look at some textiles being made and the old lady inside showed us the difference between sheep wool, alpaca, synthetic and baby alpaca. The quality, weight and feel were all amazingly different. I almost bought a jumper but it wax just slightly too small. Javier then dropped us off at the Otavalo market, supposedly one of the highlights of the market. Umm, no. Tacky items for sale at inflated costs. We could have tried to bargain the price down but there was really nothing to see. We spent more time in the local supermarket, comparing prices to Oz and the different items for sale.
Coffee wax next on the agenda and after relaxing at the hacienda with our lattes, we took a stroll through some of the grounds of the hacienda, looking for bird life. There were a number of hummingbirds which we tried to film, as well as other species.