Otavaleno Adventure Part Friday

So, the plan was to meet at the corner of Colon and 10 de agosto at 3:00. I was there right on time (amazing, huh?) and no one else was. I waited. Finally after about 10 minutes a small group showed up. Then a few minutes later, more people. Eventually there were about 10 of us and we were still waiting for more. A group of six of us (4 Madisonites: Lindsay, Yuko, Steve and Tim, 1 Oklahoman: Kara and me) decided just to go on ahead and we would meet up in Otavalo. That was the last we saw of the other group. Oops!

We got a bus right away at Terminal Terrestre going straight to Otavalo. Discussions on the Trole on the way determined that we should probably try to find a hostel before we get there as it is the big once a year festival in Otavalo. After calling about five different hostels (thank goodness for the Lonely Planet guide book), we found one with six open beds. We arrived in Otavalo about 3 hours later thanks to Quito traffic and many stops to pick up people. We went right to the hostel and confirmed that we were the people who wanted the six beds. The owner said they were on the terrace. I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that and asked to see them. Four flights of stairs later, we had three rooms and five beds, two of which were doubles and a shared bathroom that we only had to share amongst ourselves. The terrace ending up meaning that not only were we on the top but that it was kind of like a balcony and we had an awesome view of the city.

After throwing our backpacks in a room, we went down to pay for our hostel and find somewhere to eat. It was about 7:30 (this is important). On the way we just happened to run into a parade for the festival. What luck! we thought, and right at the beginning too. It was really interesting. Lots of marching bands, people dancing in traditional costumes, beauty queens throwing roses, a fire blower. Steve had the luck of being invited to dance with one of ladies in the parade and also had several flowers thrown at him. More and more people kept coming. It was unbelievable how crowded it got. We were first shoved off the curb and then completely smooshed together so that there was barely space to move our arms. At this point in time, we realized that it was already 9 o’clock. But the parade couldn’t last much longer, could it? We decided we would leave about 9:30 if it hadn’t already ended. About 9:30 we wanted to leave but realized that it would be almost impossible given the number of people around us. So we wait. How much longer could the parade possibly last? Finally we shoved our way out the front onto the parade route which we had seen lots of other people do until we found an area where we could walk on the sidewalk. During the many perdons and permisos, we past a bread shop still open. That bread tasted so good as it was already 10:30. We watched a bit more of the parade as we ate and then we tried to continue. We got to the next corner but couldn’t get past because people had chairs set up in front. After some time, someone just pushed their way through the crowd and we escaped.

Starving and exhausted from standing 3.5 hours, we sat down in the first restaurant we found. After about five minutes, the waitress told us that they were only serving soda and water and had run out of food. So we left and walk a little further down the block and found a Chinese restaurant. We were seated and each found something that sounded good on the menu. While we were waiting for the waitress to take our order, we saw her bringing out huge plates of rice for other people. We decided to just share three plates among the three of us. Unfortunately, that message was never effectively communicated to the waitress. She only brought enough silverware for three people. We ended up sharing forks and some people tried using knives and spoons. It made for a very interesting meal especially since it was already 11:30. After we finished and paid, we went back to the hostel and spent some time watching the traffic leave. It seemed that the parade had finally ended.