Otavalo Market & Hemisphere Hopping

We have had a very busy few days here in Ecuador. On Friday morning we caught a 2.5 hour bus ride north of Quito to Otavalo, a small town not far from the Colombian border. The coach and the coach ride itself was an experience ($2 each). The bus was gaudily decorated in blue and purple with paintings of gods in gold and the driver drove it along the Pan-American highway as if it were a mini, throwing it around bends which had nice drops on the side!!! There was an assistant hanging out of the front door shouting out the destination along the way and touting for more passengers and every so often, locals would also jump on and walk up and down the bus trying to sell their wears.

We arrived in Otavalo, settled in to our nice guesthouse and headed straight for the main square. Otavalo is fairly spectacularly located, surrounded by three enormous volcanoes. The most striking part of the town however is the locals. They are exquisitely dressed. The men wear their hair long in a ponytail, under a dark panama hat, with white trousers and either a red or black poncho. The women wear embroidered blouses, head scarves and carry their children on their backs wrapped in cloth. It was really quite a sight, and a real treat to be around them. They were also enormously friendly, which is becoming a bit of a running theme here in South America. The people here are quite small so Bi feels right at home while Ash feels like a giant... regularly banging his head on fixtures!!!

Well as always it was first things first for us... lunch. We found a little organic cafe with a balcony overlooking the market square. Naturally, Bi was absolutely busting to get to the market and fulfill her shopping needs, so we ate up and headed straight to it. Ash has been going on and on about getting a hammock since he first saw them 8 weeks ago in Iguazu and finally purchased one for a huge 6 pounds. He's absolutely wrapped! After touring the market we took an hour's Spanish lesson (which we desperately needed) before heading back to the guesthouse for a traditional Ecuadorean dinner and an early night, ready for an early start at the main markets on the following day.

We awoke at 6am the next morning and headed straight for the animal market just out of town. Wow what a sight beheld us! Up on the side of a hill a whole field was filled with locals trying to sell all kinds of animals: cows, pigs, sheep, horses, chickens etc. It was fascinating to see the locals lead their squealing, mooing or bleating purchases back into town! Ash approached one man and with a mixture of pigeon spanish and sign language asked how much he was selling his cow for. He said that his cow was one of the better cows and quoted a price of $60. Tempting.. but we don't have much use for a cow at the moment!!! We stood on a small hill just observing this very different way of life before heading onto the produce market. We were both stunned at the quality, quantity and diversity of the fruit and vegetables on offer. Organic eat your heart out... it's the norm here! We would have loved to have gone mad as we are longing for some fresh salad and veg, however, we have to be careful as we can't stomach the water here. Our next and final stop was to the Artisans market which had tripled in size from the previous day. We picked up a few goodies: Bi got a handwoven replacement camera bag ($1.10), and a table runner and Ash finally succumbed to the pressure and bought himself a Panama Hat... he spent the whole evening admiring himself in it! Happy from our day experiencing reputedly one of the best markets in South America, we caught the bus back to Quito in the afternoon.

On Sunday, we took a bus north to Mitad Del Mundo, or the 'Middle of the Earth' where the equator line is located. We found it quite quirky seeing as we were at 'Fin Del Mundo' (end of the Earth) only a few weeks ago. We walked to a (rather touristy) monument to the Equator and it was a novel experience hopping between the Northern and Southern hemispheres. We then headed out of the monument and walked 150m down a dust road to see the outdoors Museum of the Sun. Using GPS technology about 10 years ago, they had pinpointed the Equator to actually be at the point where this museum is now located, rather than at the monument we had previously visited. We had fun participating in various experiments all brought on by the lack of centrifugal force at the equator, such as watching the water drain down a sink in different directions, balancing an egg on a nail, and performing human strength and balance tests (which were both completely diminished!). We also saw some ancient indigenous buildings, shot at targets with blowpipes and saw a real shrunken human head! It was an old tribal tradition in the Amazon to cut off the heads of enemies and through a rather unpleasant process shrink them down to about the size of a fist! Back in Quito for the evening, we sat on our room balcony with some drinks and a pizza and watched the world go by.

Today we are joining our 10 day tour of the Galapagos Islands. We are very excited, although Bi is somewhat dreading being back on a boat again! Fingers crossed for nice smooth seas.