This morning I decided to get up a little earlier and check out the famous Otavalo Saturday Market. At about 9am I headed down to the market square and wow what a maze of people, venders, handicrafts, foods etc. A lot of the vendors were only just setting up but that didn't matter they were all selling the same kind of stuff. On Saturday the market doesn't just occupy the main square but all the streets in and around and leading up to it. Loads of tourists were wondering around and the place was a buzz - I was after a beanie but after walking around for 30 minutes I gave up and convinced myself I didn't need one. The market wasn't overly interesting but the people were. My first impressions of the Ecuadorian people is they are quiet reserved, not overly friendly and obviously are in contact with a lot of foreigners. They are Indians first and foremost and so have dark skin, short stature and most of the men have long hair. Things were not so cheap and I imagine this is the result of mass tourism. I spent most of the day wondering around people watching and trying to catch sun as it came out from behind the clouds. At 7pm my couchsurfing friends from Quito arrived; two Ecuadorian girls, an Ecuadorian couple and two Couchsurfers an Argentinian and a French guy. They checked in and then we headed out to the market square. There were loads of vendors selling street food so I picked a decent looking one that was BBQing chicken and serving with a huge plate of boiled corn, toasted corn, salad and spicy sauce for just $2- I had to eat off my knees which was incredibly difficult and the feed was huge so I gave to the many street dogs that were lingering around me. The group wanted to drink so they went and brought a ton of alcohol a couple of liters of red wine each. Not wanting it to end bad or ruin my night I told them I don't really drink and would only want a glass or so. The Ecuadorian had driven their awsome VW Van out so we all piled in the back and headed up to Peguche - the small waterfall town where the ritual would be taking place. It turns out tonight's festival on the full moon is the biggest of the year and 1000s of people had turned out all in traditional dress it was an incredible sight to see. The town square had about 10 dance circles happening - a group of musicians in the middle - stomp/dancing in a circle and outside of them also in more circles, all squished together locals and foreigners alike doing the traditional dance. I was absolutely freezing so it wasn't long before I was in the circle dancing around and the music was incredibly mesmerizing and you couldn't help but be pulled into the circles. The others started drinking and dancing and we could all tell it was going to be a great night. There were very few foreigners but there were some really hippy diehard backpackers there which was nice, better then your typical bunch of getting drunk and disrespectful backpackers. At midnight we headed up to the waterfall and past the ceremonial baths where the rituals were happening. Unfortunately only locals were allowed in to witness the rituals but we were allowed to take part in the bathing under the waterfall. I can't really explain how surreal the situation is - Full moon, the place is lit up like day time, a 60 meter high waterfall with a huge amount of force coming of it and a chaotic amount of people running, jumping and surprisingly not drowning in its waters. We got as close as we could to the falls - enough to be covered by the spray and then watched the craziness unfold. After this we went to a clearing where shark and were performing ceremonies, locals were smoking some kind of sacred Indian drugs like Iowiska and drinking various hallucinogens and chanting.
After a few hours we were all freezing so we went back to the town square and started joining dance circles again. The dancing and music had got louder and had moved into the houses now - people were also very drunk now. After a few more hours I decided I was too cold and needed to go home so I walked about 45 minutes back to Otavalo, the trail covered in people stumbling back to town but for me I was almost running - trying to get my core temperature back up. Easily my greatest night in South America so far!!