Market day

Saturday in Otavalo, 2 hours north of Quito, is market day! But it´s not just any market..the entire town turns into an incredible mesh of animals and crafts, food and pharmaceuticals, alpaca wool and cowboy hats. Literally every street is crammed with stalls all selling ecuador´s finest gifts (and tat). We got up really early to get the real experience of it all, and i´m glad we did. By midday the streets are absolutely crammed with people and suddenly the stall holders become a bit more aggressive! Otavalo itself is a really lovely town, like Quito at night it can feel slightly intimidating but by day it has a really friendly local vibe. Jules and I went into a bank to ask directions and the security guard was the same man who served us in our restaurant the night before!
We decided to be experimental with our lunch and eat in the market stalls, my Spanglish wasn´t quite adequate so I decided the best option would be pointing at a small ecuadorian boys plate and claiming ´uno para mi por favor´(im pretty sure the locals enjoy a good laugh at our terrible grasp of their language). Anyway it turned out to be hog roast with a bunch of beans and corn - they absolutely love corn here, they call it the plant of life! All was pretty tasty until i decided to put what i thought was tomato salsa on my dish - turned out to be pure blow-your-head-off chilli sauce which resulted in bringing on a somewhat embarrasing choking fit.
After some jugo frutas to wash down my chilli-treat we headed back to the bus station to get back to Quito. Buses here are so funny, as we walked into the terminal the drivers jump out and hustle you to get on their bus. Jules and I were descended on by four at once, after making our executive decision the other drivers proceeded to hiss at the succesful driver. It all felt a little bit ridiculous. It´s a very private-personal public transport system here!
On the bus we met and ecuadorian university lecturer who teaches English which was really helpful and I made notes on practical ways to make myself understood a bit better. Although we weren´t really sure what to say when he started demanding that we teach him some english swear words. He then informed us that he is a big fan of Eminem and began to recite a particularly offensive rap...obviously without having a clue what it meant. All we could do to save him was to let him know that he probably shouldnt walk around telling people to ´suck your dick up´.
When we finally made it back to Quito our friends were holding a party for Couch-surfers which was good fun. Lots of people from all over South America coming together for a free party on a rooftop..they were playing salsa and latin-american music all night and insisted on teaching Jules and I some moves. I think after I trod the guys foot the fiftieth time though he realised I was never gunna be a salsa queen and much to both of our relief gave up. I did however rock at table football (complete fluke obviously-but hey in a country where no-one knows you!)
I have lots of pictures to upload but it is really slow in internet cafes so you will have to wait until I find a decent one!

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Part of trip: South American Adventure

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