A Weekend in Otavalo

Our first weekend trip was with the program to Otavalo, a smaller city about 2 hours outside of Quito. Otavalo is known for its street market, the biggest one every Saturday where they sell just about everything you find in all other parts of Quito - a big reason people come here to buy things is because of the wool sweaters. I used the bargaining I learned in China and was able to get a few good deals...including one of these sweaters for myself that I got for $9, and this isn't just any llama sweater.





So we left early Saturday morning and stopped at a place that sells the famous Panama Hats. These are actually from Ecuador, despite the name. They're the straw hats that you can see in some of my other pictures online We later went for lunch at a Hacienda, which were owned by a wealthy family back in the day and they hired a lot of poorer families to work the farm. I've read a lot about these in spanish history, so it was cool to finally see what they were like. This one was huge. Now it's a hotel/restaurant and decorated in a lot of white. Below is a picture of a few of the




It started to rain so we had to change our itinerary a bit. We had plans to see some famous waterfall, but we didn't have time on Sunday to go here. However, we went to some other fun places. I've never seen something like Cuicocha Lake (which means guinea pigs). This former volcano collapsed hundreds of years ago, and the ice from the top of the volcano formed the lake. The mountains surrounding the lake grew from the volcanic base, and is now home to numerous plans and animals because of its rich vegetation. We took a boat ride around the lake and saw the little bubbles that proved the crater was still active. It was freezing, but fun to see.

We went to Parque Cóndor, which is home to the national bird of Ecuador. All the museums here are really cheap. We have yet to go to one that costs more than $3. After a guided tour (in Spanish, of course), we saw a flight show of different birds. The seats were made of stone and kind of in a coliseum form, downscaled a lot. The birds were trained, but one bird fly right towards me, and I ducked just in time so he only touched my hair. A little nerve racking at first, but now it's chévere to think about.

Otavalo didn't really have a night life, and whatever they did was closed because of the elections. Elections are held on Sundays here, and no place is allowed to sell alcohol starting on Friday. I also found out that voting is mandatory, and although there is only a small fine if you don't pay, you suffer a lot without the paper that proves you voted, which apparently you show a lot when you try to buy things. I've been learning a lot about Ecuador's history in one of my classes, and it’s crazy how much they still have to do. It makes me appreciate the U.S. a lot more, because unlike us, Ecuador has had 21 constitutions. There isn't a lot of trust in the presidents, and he has a ton of power although there the system is divided into 3 branches. Ecuador also has a pretty hard history, suffering a huge economic crisis in the 90s. They switched the dollar in 2000, which current President Correa would ideally get rid of because he associates it with a loss of identity, but the citizens associate the dollar with stability and would probably overthrow him if he tried.

Otavalo was cool, but it was more of a place for us to see the culture. Mindo, however, was amazing. Check it out-- (above)