Advertisement
Published: November 14th 2009
Edit Blog Post
We arrived into Ecuador without actually knowing we had done so. Yep somehow we had missed the Colombian exit stamp office and gone straight through to Ecuador. Not even the massive flagpole was a giveaway as the flags of both countries are remarkably similar, really they are! Fearing that any future prospects as international diplomats may be quashed by our failure to have a Colombian exit stamp on our passports we asked the friendly Ecuadorian entry guy how we get back to Colombia. Remember at this stage we hadn't even realised that we had left. 'Easy', he replied, 'just walk across that bridge and go to that cafe over there and you can get a stamp'. Done and done... So we re-entered Ecuador with stamps and had the most fantastic of lunches for just $1.50 each - what a welcome to the country!
Our next welcome however wasn't to be so kind. We had jumped on a bus from the border to the market town of Otavalo. Now the protocol for bus trips in South America so far had been that they ALWAYS stop at the bus terminal in any given town. A bit surprised at the speed at which
we were passing through Otavalo, we asked the conductor if we would stop at the terminal. He replied no, so we asked if he could stop the bus when we were as close as possible to the centre of town. A few minutes later we were clearly exiting the town, so we asked the conductor again to stop. 'But we're already passed Otavalo' he replied angrily, 'why didn't you say something?' We finally convinced him to stop the bus on the highway, grabbed the two sleeping gringos behind us, and got off the bus in the dark, on the roadside lost and hungry... ok, well we weren't really lost and we had been stuffing ourselves with potato chips for the previous hour, but you get the idea.
After a good sleep we awoke in much better moods to the Saturday morning Otavalo markets, probably the most famous local markets in all of South America. An early walk to a big park the outskirts of town had us in the middle of the bustling animal market, where all sizes and varieties of cows, horses, pigs, guinea pigs and chooks are paraded around, seemingly haphazardly until a willing purchaser is found.
the animal market, Otavalo
check out the traditional get up, and the volcano in the background All this is done under the backdrop of an impressive dormant volcano, with the local inhabitants meticulously dressed in their traditional indigenous clothes. All in all, very picturesque!
The food market was no less colourful with impressive stacks of fresh produce, more types of beans than you could poke a stick at and plenty of juices made from bizarre tropical fruits. We took the advice of Jean and Ronan (whom we crossed paths with at various hostels in Colombia) and headed straight for a pig stall for breakfast. Here you get pork cut from a whole pig right in front of your eyes, served with most varieties of bean known to mankind - not only a fun experience but very tasty as well!
The craft market is the source of most of the hype about Otavalo markets. However for us it just didn't compare to the animal and food stalls. Whilst there were some really nice blankets, wall hangings, jewelleries and all sorts of knick-knacks, for the most part each store seemed to be selling the exact same things. Having said that we still walked away with a new beanie for me and a few early christmas presents
for Jen's nieces and nephew.
A few hours after the markets we found ourselves in Ecuador's capital, the beautifully hilly and preserved Quito. We spent quite a few days here, not only awaiting our departure to the Galapagos Islands, but also checking out the beautiful streets of the old town, probably the prettiest we had come across in big cities of South America so far. Like usual, our timing was impeccable. On our first morning (Sunday) in town we came across countless official live performances of traditional dances, 'classic rock' bands, and all sorts of street performances. Even more impressive was the 'unofficial' performance outside one of the churches of an indigenous group consisting of a marching band (all in suits), about 20 'good' clowns dancing while 2 or 3 'evil' clowns brandishing fake guns and machetes trying to round up the 'good clowns'. One of the evil ones even made a motion clearly directed at me of him cutting off his own penis with his machete - still I'm not sure if this was meant to scare or humour me, as his mask had a jolly smiling face on it the whole time!
These clowns were later
seen invading the official perforamce area, and also in a street parade, where incidently one of them started whipping me, and a man dressed as a dog began gnawing at my leg! What a way to celebrate religion on a Sunday!
We also spent plenty of time wandering the streets of Quito old town. The highlight of these was walking along the 'street of the 7 crosses' (i.e. lots of churches on that one) and finding ourselves wandering the halls of the gorgeous cultural exhibition building where we got amazing views over the main square, the with the president's house on one side and the archbishop's on the other. Lunchtimes were spent at the local food market trying out all the local dishes - well Jen tried them all, but I kept going back for the same one because it was so good!). Nights were spent on hostel rooftops with amazing views over the city, drinking beers or cuba libres, stoking the fire and sharing stories with fellow travellers. It turns out Quito, just like Bogotá, is much nicer than all the horror stories would have us believe.
Oh, and just outside of town lies the Equator.
Apparently there are all sorts of demonstrations on how your weight is different at the equator and which way the water goes down toilets, but we knew that these were all fixed tricks, so we just went there for the line on the ground which we could spend hours jumping from one side of the planet to the other!
And now, its off to some islands in the Pacific ocean for some wildlife watching!
Jeff and Jen
Advertisement
Tot: 0.363s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0843s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb