Sunday Market

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Otavalo Market

Otavalo is a town not far north of Quito. I went there Sunday morning and came back later in the afternoon by the local bus. The tourist buses unload about 9am and pack up again at 1pm.
However, the locals use the animal market to buy and sell what´s important to them and its held on the other side of the river from the tourist market.
Otavalo weavers have produced clothes for centuries.
The Otavalo Indians are familar as buskers in most countries playing the haunting Andean music and selling their CD's.

They use the American dollar in Ecuador. But what I hadn't seen before were the Indian-head coins they used instead of one dollar bills. I couldn't figure out how the US government would allow these coins to be used . Well, apparently they are legal tender in the US. They were introduced in the year 2000 but never gained popularity, largely because vending machines don't use them.The lady Indian on the face of the coin is Socagawea.

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Photos

Socagawea Dollar
Socagawea was a Shoshone woman who accompanied Lewis and Clark in their exploration of the Western United States

I think they like each other
Ecuadorian equivalent of walking the dog?

Animal Market
Every Sunday the locals come to town to buy or sell livestock, just down the street from the tourist market.

Buying and Selling, Local Stock Market
¨Wonder if I could get that pig through customs?¨
White shoes may look silly especially with jeans but its the only colour of leather shoes to wear unless you want to be pestered 100 times a day by shoe-shine boys.

Weavings, etc.
This is more the type of market we tourists are interested in.

Colourful Wares
Otavalo men all wear long hair in a ponytail under a felt hat. You see them as buskers in every city in the world playing that haunting Andean music based on the pipes of pan