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Published: February 26th 2007
Arrived late last night in Otavalo - a market town 2 and a half hours away from Quito. Had a bit of a manic time at Quito bus terminal. We all had to pile into taxies to get there and whilst two taxis turned up we missed the bus as we were waiting fot the third. Loads of men around yelling at us that we want to get on ´their´bus so we just stood in a group trying to ignore them (no easy feat I assure you). The others finally turned up (their taxi had taken them to the wrong place - no idea how as I thought there was only one bus terminal in Quito!) thankfully as it was very dark by this point and we had been warned it is not a good place at be at night. Managed to get on the right bus that actually goes to Otavalo as opposed to the ones who drop you eight blocks away from the centre in the middle of the night despite assuring you they take you to the bus terminal. You have to take everything anyone says here with a pinch of salt especially if they´re selling something! A
couple of Germans also on the bus with us managed to persuade the driver to take us to a hostel so we didn´t have to wander around in a stange town in the dark. Had to wake up really early Saturday morning as the market started at six. Not a problem as Louisa decided to come and bang on our door at ten past six. We were out in the market (which starts literally in front of the hostel door and stretched right down the street and into the square) by 7.30pm. Sophie B bought a wooden spoon from the stall blocking the hostel door which she loves! They were actually quite cool but I was trying to be practical and bought mainly jewellery. (Yes, it is practical!) Spent a good few hours wandering around and bought far too much stuff. I was very tempted by the huge turquoise pendants but I figure we´ll be back before we fly home so I might as well save most of the shopping til then. My first purchase of the day was from this old woman who was selling gorgeous hand woven scarfs. We were faithful to the Lonely Planet which says you
Baskets and wooden spoons!
The stall blocking out hostel although Sophie did buy her beloved spoon from here!should offer half of what they say and settle on about two thirds but she was having none of it. Even haggling in tentative Spanish didn´t have an effect and what is $2.50 in the long run? So we all bought them - she didn´t even give us a group discount! Managed to get a bag as well as I was running out of hands with all my purchases! The only discount we managed to really get was a necklace for $1 for Sophie G who was ill and stayed in the hostel - I think we were just annoying the woman by the end. Started on the souvenir shopping though as I always leave it til the last minute. Really interesting stalls even if you weren´t buying. We didn´t make it to the animal market but they had massive stalls of food including several types of fruit that were unrecognisable. I really want to try the pink bananas at some point though. The market started ok but was really packed with American tourists by the end. It was a good job we´d taken the advice to go the previous evening so we could start early. Retreated back to the
Scarf Woman!
My first purchase of the day and she so did not want to haggle! hostel for 12 and then went in search of food. The group split up after lunch as some wanted to stay another night and go the Laguna San Pablo but the majority of us hadn´t told our families so we had to get back. Ended up with the same German guys on the bus back - bit of a coincidence as apparently the bus driver the night before had thought we were a school class and they were our teachers! Don´t know how old they thought we were. The buses here are infinitely better than back home. On short journeys they have salsa blaring out the whole time and on longer ones like today they are proper coaches and have films playing. The journey passed fairly quickly thanks to ´Pretty Woman´. It also took less time driving back and now that I could see the roads I understood why. Narrow, winding roads along the edge of mountain - not something I´d fancy driving in the dark!
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Tim
non-member comment
hehe
looking at the scarf piccy im sure you could blend in if you wanted