Otavalo Part Saturday

Amazingly, I was the first one up on Saturday morning. I tried waking up the others because they said they had wanted to go to the animal market which is very early in the morning. They decided sleep was more important. I went out to try to find some breakfast but evidently nothing opens until 8. So I came back to the hostel and waited and read my Lonely Planet book and people watched. There wasn’t much else to do. Finally everyone else got up and we were off, not quite to the market, but for breakfast. Usually, I like to get to the market right away. That’s when you get the best deals and as it gets later, it also get more crowded. Oh well, traveling with different people means adapting to their styles too. We started shopping around 10:30 definitely the latest I’ve ever been at the market but it actually wasn’t that crowded. We shopped around for a couple hours of course wanting to buy everything and having money only for a little. I bought a white llama wool hat, alpaca gloves and an alpaca scarf for my andinismo class. I had been warned it can be very cold high in the mountains. We left the market sooner than we would have preferred because we had to check out of the hostel.

We decided to go to a hostel called La Luna, which was outside the city and do some hiking there. We asked the hostel owner at the first place if it was possible to walk there. He pointed out that it was pretty far up into the mountains and recommended taking a cab. First, we looked for some bread and cheese to make sandwiches for lunch. Then we flagged down a truck to take us up to the hostel. About five minutes into the journey, we realized we would have been crazy to walk it. It was entirely uphill. It was lots of fun riding in the back of a truck going through all that awesome scenery. We arrived and were greeted by four giant but friendly dogs. The hostel owner showed us to the dormitory (go $4/night beds!) and gave us a map to some of the near by trails. After we ate our lunch, we set out to find a waterfall.

The trail was fairly easy to walk even with the altitude (probably about 3000m above sea level). It was very scenic. In the distance was a huge green mountain covered in fields giving it a patched appearance. We walked by some fields, pastures and small houses too. We found lots of interesting and pretty flowers and plants. After about 30 minutes of walking, we could hear lots of water. Soon there was the giant waterfall in front of us. It was so cool! I think the name of it is Taxopamba. I’m sure it’s a Quechua word and I have no idea what it means. We stayed there for a while and just watched and listened. Then we got creative and decided to try to use our cameras to take self-portraits of the group. Sometimes it worked, sometime it didn’t. The hike back seemed quicker but was more exhausting as we had to go uphill more.

We got back to the hostel and started to plan our next adventure. We were interrupted by three Belgium guys who were also staying in the dorm with us. They said that they had heard there was supposed to be a beauty pageant and a fiesta in Otavalo tonight. We decided that sounded like a once in a lifetime experience. This time we walked to Otavalo on a path recommended by the hostel. The map said it was about 4km and would take an hour. Crazy, we thought. That’s like walking less then 2 miles per hour. We could do it faster. At first, it was fine, watching the sun go down behind the mountains and greeting the people coming up the mountain. Then the streetlights starting coming on and we noticed that it was getting a bit dark. The path took a turn and we were no longer on a stone road but a dirt road without streetlights. Then it took another turn and it was no more than a narrow dirt path. By this point in time, it was pretty dark. Finally, we saw a road at the end of the path with cars on it. This took about an hour. What the map didn’t mention was that it was an hour to the edge of Otavalo, not the center where all the restaurants and tourist stuff is. So we kept walking. I suggested finding something at the Pie Shop, a place where I had eaten many times before. Lonely Planet said it was open till 9. We got there at about 7:15 and it was closed. Oops! But there was a different restaurant next door that had some good gringo food. One of the guys was surprised to find sirloin steak for only $4. After a good meal of almost American food, we asked about the beauty pageant. The waiter gave us directions but didn’t know much more than that. When we got there, there was like a mini fair going on in front of the building. We asked about getting into the theater but it cost $5 which we decided was too much for something that started two hours ago. So we walked around the fair for a while. It was kind of like Ecuador meets State Fair. There were booths selling copied CDs and DVDs, some selling “name brand” clothes and others with infomercial like people selling pans and incense. After looking around for a while, we left to catch a cab back to the hostel. (No way were we going to walk that path UP in the dark) The first cab refused to take six people but we didn’t want to have to split up. We figured after as close as we had been smooshed together at the parade, four people in the backseat and two in front would be no problem. The second cab agreed to take us. Little did we know what a maniac driver he was. At first he was just talking on his cell phone. Then he started driving pretty fast. Then he cut off a cop who didn’t really seem to care. As we got further up the mountain, he pretty much stopped slowing down for speed bumps and curves. It was definitely the scary cab ride I have ever been on. When we got to the hostel, we jumped out and breathed a sigh of relief that we were alive, then we realized how crazy the whole night had been and started laughing about it. We spent the rest of the night star gazing, watching for shooting stars and the storm moving in behind the mountains. We went to bed when we were too tired and cold to stay out any longer.