Blogs from Otavalo, North, Ecuador, South America - page 23

So we have this amazing trip planned....straight after spanish school on friday, we get a coach to Otavalo, a market town about two hours away. Saturday is market day, but our reasons for going on friday night is the market starts very early..at like 7am, and to avoid all the annoying american tourists you have to get in there early...So yus, we arrive at this hostel....called hostel maria..(everything is called maria here...the hostel, the supermercado, even my new teacher!) Very nice, very cheap, 2.50 for a night, en-suite too dont you know! (which came in very useful when i was throwing up later...) We were all very happy with ourselves, our first successful journey on our own out of quito with the crazy transport system, we had actualy managed to get to a hostel then we ... read more

A two hour bus ride from Quito to Otavalo does not sound like much of a problem after the numerous and lengthy bus rides in Bolivia. How mistaken I was, with no Kwells (motion sick tablets) for 2 hours on pressurised brakes racing every corner, bus, truck, tricycle, or anything that moved. I felt worse for wear on arrival at Otavalo. However we quickly found a great hostel at US$7 pp/pn overlooking the market. The hostel directed us to a great lunch spot - 3 courses for $2 and quickly I am back on track again. Otavalo is well known for its craft / indigenous market, so we are happy to have a room with a bird´s eye view. By early morning we can hear the clacking of metal as the stores are being erected, the ... read more

In the Spanish, the H is never actually pronounced, therefore not of much use. Hence, my week is brought to you by the letter H. Very uneventful week, I showed up to teach on Monday only to be informed classes would not be held because of some teachers´meeting. I promptly got back on the same bus I arrived in to return to Otavlo to take care of some errands. On Tuesday the bus I usually take in the morning never arrived, the other teachers weren´t particularly suprised, one shrugged and said ¨It sometimes happens.¨ I eventually tracked down a later bus, which had me arriving at school about 3 hours late. However, I finally made it to class only to find the vast majority of my students missing because of a soccer tournament. So, on the ... read more

My first week was tough, but Friday was the high note of the week. Beginning with Friday, as I was teaching, we had an extra kid enter the classroom, not an unusual occurance, however this kid was of the baby goat variety. The children were highly amused (I was laughing hysterically myself) as I chased the goat around the classroom and out the door. Then, he came back and tried to eat the teacher´s lunch, before making his way onto a desk chair and then standing on a desk. I eventually chased him across the playground . . . hmmm goat herding, I wonder if that counts as a new skill on my resume. So far in one week I´ve had some unusual appearances in the classroom: a couple of dogs, a chicken or two and ... read more

We have had the whirlwind tour of Quito with our friends Alex and Nidia. we have seen so much more in so little time than what we would have on our own. went to el medio del mundo (the equator "for those of you who don´t habla español"). matt had a wonderful surprise when we rounded the monument on the west side and found four lovely and scantily clad ladies from Peru dancing for a camera (don´t worry, matt will send all you guys the picture!). And you can balance an egg on the equator as well as weigh 5 lbs less! Today we broke free of our lovely guides and went north to Otavalo, where supposedley there is the best market in all of S. America. It was good, but guess we can´t really be ... read more