Market at Otavalo

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We joined the group from the UK again and we rented a van that drove us three hours to the small mountain town of Otavalo where we spent the whole day shopping at the famous market there. The market was huge! I couldn’t believe how big it was! It run up two street for about 8 city blocks, jam packed with little shops selling everything from jewelry, textiles, hammocks, tshirts paintings, sweaters and blankets made out of alpaca and traditional Ecuadorian crafts. We were there for about 6 hours and I feel like I still didn’t see it all. At one point found myself in an area that was filled with fruit and vegetable stands. Then I found myself in the meat section, filled with hanging strips of meat and chickens and nasty pieces of meat with flies all over it. There were also stands where people were cooking meals of the nastiest looking food I have ever seen. Some of the food stands had whole pigs just sitting there with a tomato stuffed in its mouth. Some stands had cow heads just sitting out on the counter where you order. The smell was so gross and I was trying to find my way out of the maze of meat when I saw a woman taking a chopped up cow hide, including the head of the cow, out of a bag and putting it into another bag. I felt so sick but thankfully I got out of there right after that. Other than that experience I loved the market! I bought a lot of stuff and everything was very inexpensive. Somehow I managed to rack up a big bill but I’m really happy with my purchases- some jewelry, a scarf, some art pieces and other good stuff!

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