Ecuador – Otavalo

On Friday, I headed north from Quito to a small town of about 10,000 people called Otavalo.  The town is known for it’s massive Saturday regional market that has many fine locally made handicrafts.  Being a fiber lover, this was top of my list to see in Ecuador.  As well, the area has some good hiking, so I decided I would stay for about 5 days to relax and enjoy the area.  The town sits at about 2550m. I was glad that Florian, one of the fun folks from the Galapagos cruise, decided to join me for a day in Otavalo.  This was my first encounter with the Ecuador bus system so I was a bit intimidated.  However, it is easy – you just show up at the bus station and look for a bus displaying the name of the town you want to go to.  The bus network is extensive and you can get anywhere.  Since it is only $0.25 everyone uses them. On Friday when we got here we visited the Parque Condor which is run by a foundation dedicated to preserving birds of prey in the Andes and promoting awareness.  The main draw is to see the flight demonstrations where the release the birds and tempt them back with various treats (including entire dead chicks for the large ones).  It was remarkable to watch the elegant birds enjoy their few moments of freedom.  It also helped that it was set against a lovely backdrop of the huge volcanoes and mountains around Otavalo.

After the flight demonstration we walked back to town (took about 1.5 hrs) to enjoy the scenery.  On the way we found El Lechero which has a reputation as a magical healing tree.  There was no indication of how you activate the healing powers however apparently it is a very important place for locals as it was surrounded by flowers and two rows of barbed wire fencing.

For the first couple of days I experimented with eating at the food stalls at the market.  For $1.50 you get soup, a plate of rice, veggies, and meat as well as a cup of lemonade.  Seemed too good to be true.  Which it was as the result has been a bought of travellers diarrhea that has been conquered thanks to some wicked antibiotics I had on hand.

Saturday morning bright and early (6.30 am) we headed off to start our visit to the local market.  First stop was the animal market.  It seemed like every type of animal was available from cows, pigs, chicks ($1 each), guinea pigs, and rabbits.  No alpacas or llamas though.  In listening into the negotiations apparently a fully grown pig goes for about $75.

Next stop was the handicrafts market.  There is a daily market held in Plaza Los Ponchos (fitting name!) but on Saturdays vendors from the surrounding communities come and the market spills over into all the surrounding streets.  It is massive, colourful, and chaotic.  Lots of fun! There were so many beautiful handicrafts including alpaca blankets, woven shawls and table clothes, bags, hats and everything else.  It was so hard no to go on a shopping spree.  But limited space in my backpack helped keep me in check so I only bought a cotton blouse and a colourful bag.

I had originally planned to book day excursions for my remaining 4 days here through a local travel agent.  However, that proved difficult as I’m a solo traveller and they require two people to run an excursion.  I wasn’t very lucky as there aren’t that many other tourists around at this time of year booking right now.  I did manage to book a hiking trip for yesterday tagging along with a French couple and I’ve booked a jaunt to the small weaving villages for Wednesday (I may have to pay for two spots if no one else has joined).  So to fill my time I’ve been trying to explore on my own. On Sunday I went to the neighbouring town of Cotacachi.  Sunday is their market day so it was fairly lively and fun to walk around.  As well, the town is known for producing high quality leather goods.  As I have more bags than I need from my trips to Italy, I managed to restrain myself.

Yesterday (Monday) I joined a French couple on the first of a couple of hikes I wanted to do.  There are many lovely lakes in the area, mostly filling collapsed volcanic craters.  This excursion was to visit one of these lakes, Laguna Mojanda and to climb the neighbouring volcano called Fuya Fuya.  We drove from Otavalo (2550 m) up to the lake at about 3700m.  We then walked up the volcano which reaches 4300m.  Unfortunately the steep, rapid climb caused me to have problems with the altitude and at about 4100m I had to turn back.  I couldn’t take more than about 40 steps without gasping for air and at the time I stopped I was getting dizzy.  I was disappointed to not get to the top, but I’m glad I stopped. It was a lovely view from where I stood and I was able to watch the clouds move in across the lake.  Unfortunately this also made it a very cold decent and wait at the bottom for the others in the group.  Some rest in the afternoon along with Advil for headache and plenty of water helped take care of the altitude sickness.

Today I decided to do another hike.  This time around Lake Cuicocha.  The lake fills a collapsed volcanic crater and is 200m deep.  There are two islands in the centre that look like guinea pigs (cuicocha is Kichwa for guinea pig).  The hike is about 15 km around the rim of the crater.  It is a spectacular setting for what I found to be a very difficult hike as you spend about half your time going up steep inclines. It took about 4.5 hours to go around the crater.  You start the trail at the park entrance and immediately start to climb progressively up to the highest point on the rim. The lake lies at about 3250m and you climb up to about 3600m.  About three quarters of the way around you start descending through switch backs on the back side of the rim as the cliff down to the lake is too steep.  Confusingly the trail ends abruptly at the main road and you have to hike back along the road to the beginning.  I missed the turn off to the entrance so had a lot of back tracking to do on my already tired legs.

In the morning I took a taxi from the small town where the bus drops you.  On arriving I was assured at the entrance that there were always taxis at the entrance ready to take you back.  Not the case at all during the week.  On finally finishing my hike I found no means of returning to town.  Luckily a German couple with the number for a taxi arrived shortly and we were able to share a ride back.  So no harm in the end. So tonight my legs and butt are very tired from two days of very hard walking. I’m hoping I am mobile tomorrow.  My reward tonight for all my work was a little mini bottle of wine.  It even came with a mini glass.  The bottle was 1/4 of a litre and the class held 1/3 of that.

Here is my info from my fitbit for today – I thought it was rather funny how extreme it is! Steps: 30,174, Distance: 20.91 km, Floors: 297 (the CN Tower is 147 floors!). Sorry for the long post but the wifi has been down at my hotel for the past few days so it’s been building up!