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Published: February 25th 2007
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The scarf woman
The first seller of the day for us. She didn´t want to barter. My oh my, what a busy weekend. After school on Friday (spent playing scrabble. I swear our teachers just use our lessons as an excuse to get together and play games) we hopped in taxis and zoomed off to the central bus station in Quito, which could well be the armpit of the Sierra. We spent about half an hour wandering around with our bags on backwards (for style, as well as safety), trying to find each other without the aid of phones, and being hassled by pushy bus drivers who were all adamant that we DID want to get on their bus to Otavalo. In the end we just had to shout "NO" at them to make them go away. Eventually we were all on a coach, and sat clutching onto our bags for dear life (Ecuadorian coaches are renowned as hotspots for pickpockets and thieves). I swear one woman who couldn´t find a seat came and stood next to me just to discreetly touch my hair every so often. Weeeeird. I´m slightly getting used to the undue attention from EVERYBODY, and have worked out a couple of tricks to deflect it (by the way, Ecuadorian buses all seem to
I love boobies, apparently
Hahahahaha those crazy Ecuadorians have about three horns - one to express annoyance at other drivers, one as a kind of comedy horn, and a wolf-whistle horn. And I´m not even joking.) - one way is to wear a hat, and another to wear an Ecuadorian football shirt. I think it´s just the conflicting ideas that it instills in the locals ("a woman? A blonde? From England? Wearing a football shirt? An Ecuadorian football shirt? What can it mean?!") and they don´t have time to reach for the horn once they´ve recovered from the shock. The fascination with blonde hair is intense. If you´re out at night men stop you in the street to talk to you, or just stare straight at you. For AGES.
Anyway, so we had a three hour bus ride to Otavalo, and nothing got stolen (yay), so we were in high spirits by the time we reached our hostel. We paid $5 each for the night, and ate out in a seafood restaurant, despite the fact that hardly any of us actually liked seafood. The garlic bread was good, though.
We were up at the crack of 7am for our first Ecuador market experience. By the time we got
Aaargh!
Don´t worry, it´s only Claire in her decorative headpiece. Apparently it gets a bit hot in there, but that´s ok, because it´s not for everyday wear. out of the hostel, our road, which had been deserted the night before, was filling up with stalls selling jewellery, wooden spoons (which we all felt a curious affinity for, though I managed to abstain from buying one), rugs, tablecloths, hats, ponchos, scarves, fruit, ornaments, puppets, shoes, hammocks, pictures... Giddy with the excitement of being able to buy stuff for about a tenth of the price anywhere else, we tripped off into the market place to pick us up some bargains. Apparently, the idea at these markets is never to accept the starting price you are given, as the seller never expects you to pay that anyway. So you have to haggle it down, starting by halving the price, then upping it to settle at about two thirds of the original price. However, when a woman offers you a beautifully hand-woven scarf for $2.50, you just feel that it would be a crime not to accept. I think most scarves went for about $2, though I´m afraid my first attempt of haggling didn´t go so well...
ME: "¿cuanto cuesta?" SCARF LADY: "$2.50." ME: "Errmm... ¿$2?" SCARF LADY: "No. $2.50" ME: "Errmm........... ¿$2? ¿Por favor?" SCARF LADY: "$2.50" ME "Erm... ok."
Marketplace cool
You´ve got to love those shades Brilliant work. However, as the day progressed it went more like this:
ME: "¿cuanto cuesta?" JEWELLERY MAN: "$3" ME: "¡No! ¡Es ridiculoso!" JEWELLERY MAN: "OK... ¿que es su precio señorita?" ME: "$1.50" JEWELLERY MAN: "Nooo.... son muy preciosos. $2.50. Por favor" ME: "¡Pero son tiny! No gracias, son demasiado caros" JEWELLERY MAN: "Ok... $2" ME: "$1.75. No mas. Puedo encontrarlos mas baratos en el mercado..." MAN: (look of deep pain) "ok, ok... $1.75. Gracias"
Success! But most of the time you never really knew if you were getting ripped off or not until after the sale, when you thought you´d just got a real bargain, and then you saw the look of glee as they pocketed your $4 for a fantastic poncho. Ah well, I guess everybody wins. I managed to pick up 2 scarves, 2 bracelets, a poncho, a woollen bag, 3 pairs of earrings, 2 silver rings, some fruit.... All for about $30. ¡Fantastico!
After a bit of lunch we decided to move on out back to Quito. The bus journey was in daylight this time, and exponentially more enjoyable. For a start, they were playing Pretty Woman on the TV, which I´ve never seen before, and which was
something of a cultural experience, I thought. We decided to venture out again into the Mariscal partyland last night, and attracted a large bunch of vulture-like men on the dancefloor, but retired early because we were missing our ten hours´sleep. This time we were not ripped off in the taxi, and got home for a dirt cheap $2. Things are looking up!
This afternoon we are planning to explore the Old City, so I´m sure I will return more culturally enriched, and tired from climbing up hills. Hasta next time... PS check out the random videos of us having fun in a restaurant in Otavalo.
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Tim
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hello! looks like you're having a great time, keep looking for the rich man who's going to pay for me to come over! PS what's Michael Schumacher doing over there?