Going to Town

Day: 355

(I uploaded a larger version than normal of the picture above because I think it says a lot about todays tourism, have a click)

Saturday in Otavalo is market day; and market day begins by dragging squealing hordes of piglets to the animal market to sell or trade for one of a thousand other animals. For me it started by getting up early, meeting up with the Aussies who wanted to share a cab, and driving down to a shit covered field to see what was the rumpus with all this tasty living meat. After our $3 cab ride, and the driver telling us to “watch our bags”, we arrived in the packed animal market complete with cows, pigs, ponies, chickens and llamas. We meandered about, dodging every kind of feces imaginable, until we gave up the hunt for fresh pig veal and started off towards town.

Otavalo, on Saturday, essentially closes all its streets for 5 blocks in any direction of the main square and thousands of people flood in to sell and buy everything from, food, fruits, vegetables, snacks, hats, clothes, assorted knick-knacks, all sorts of electronics and pretty much anything else an Ecuadorian farmer could want. We settled for a couple of touristy (but warm!) hats, a roasted chicken lunch, a while at the internet cafe, and some food supplies for dinner. After a number of hours just looking we decided to try and catch the 1:30pm bus back to our hostel, after about 30 minutes of waiting and looking it was 1:42pm and we still couldn’t find it. We hailed a cab and headed back for an afternoon of lounging and napping.

Dinner was a simple affair of a picnic overlooking the valley, with plenty of bread, avocados, cheese, tuna, chili sauce, bananas and plenty of Oreos for dessert.