We arrived in Quito, Ecuador 12 hours after planned due to our Cuzco to Lima flight being delayed long enough to miss the morning flight to Quito. Unfortunately, TACA Peru only flies two times a day to Quito, so we spent our entire day hanging out in the Lima airport…
Our first day in Ecuador was devoted to locating the grocery store and relaxing in the amazing suite we found in an Italian’s ex-pat’s home that we love and will return to on the final days in Ecuador. We haven’t yet explored Quito because on Friday we headed to the northern town of Otavalo, an important South American center of ethno-tourism that hosts an enormous Saturday market said to be the best in South America. In fact, we’d heard we could find any textile from anywhere in Latin America at this market, which hasn’t been far from the truth. In an interesting side note, when we walked through the Feria de Los Flores y del Café in Boquete, Panama, we saw large shipping boxes all labeled as having come from Otavalo for the vendor stalls.
We arrived in Otavalo on Friday afternoon and after determining the place we had reserved was not going to work for us, we found a lovely place to stay right outside the main square, Plaza de Ponchos, where there are merchants selling textiles daily. We explored the town for the afternoon and planned out our tour of the different market sections for Saturday.
Early Saturday morning we visited the animal market where such things as cuy (guinea pig), ducks, chickens, sheep, cows, pigs, goats, rabbits, and even puppies and kittens were for sale. We found ourselves among the crowds of Ecuadorians purchasing the various animals for food or other purposes. I believe we mentioned this when in Belize, but we have learned that pigs have the most heart-wrenching scream when they feel distressed, and we witnessed how extremely stubborn they are as a woman dragged her screaming pig on its butt across the field as it planted its back legs.
From the animal market we returned through the city streets which had become filled with tables and tents for 100s of merchants to sell their wares. On our way out to the animal market only a few had set up, after an hour, the streets were busy with sales and colorful textiles. We spent the day browsing through the stalls and talking with vendors who were eager to negotiate. We found a style of painting we liked, but the price was not right (however, we did get the same picture from the same woman for the price we wanted two days later – we had read Saturdays were more expensive). It was a fun day enjoying the market and it is definitely the largest market we have visited in all of our time exploring Latin America.
On Sunday, we took a walk to the Cascada de Peguche, which is outside of town and near the artisan village of Peguche. We acquired a map from the tourism office on Friday and another from our hotel owner, who also provided snippets of directions that were quite vague and included the statement the “lago is lejitos” and gestured to show us it is over and on the other side of a hill/mountain. Armed with our limited maps and the bits of directions, we made our way – you’d think we would have learned from previous such journeys. We were well on our way following the train tracks, but wondered if we’d missed a right turn, since by our map we seemed to have gone too far; a friendly couple on the road assured us to “sigue derecha derecha derecha.” We did and after nearly an hour we reached the sign pointing to Peguche on the left and the Cascada on the right. A brief walk further led to the entrance of the Cascada where we found café’s, shops, and artisan stalls. We joined the Sunday crowd to the Cascada and sidestepped the numerous people splashing one another with the water in the little canal along the route.
Our plan was to continue on to Parque Condor and the Lago San Pablo, which appeared to be fairly close from the Cascada. We followed the sign outside the cascada entrance and headed uphill along a cobblestone street in the direction of the lago. We seemed to locate our street on the map and eventually came to another sign encouraging us to continue onward. It wasn’t until we reached an intersection with no signage that we had to predict the correct route. Logic told us to follow the cobblestone road since the dirt road led into farmland. After passing through a quiet and seemingly deserted village, we came to a sign that pointed us to a town on the other side of the lake than we’d planned to visit and no information about Parque Condor. An inquisitive girl informed us that we had to return from where we came to reach the Parque. We did so and asked again along the way and were told it was over the bridge at that intersection and then up, up, up the hill at the top. At the bridge we asked a young girl doing wash in the river and she pointed us up a path we certainly would not have chosen on our own – behind a water plant and into farmland. Once there, we found another campesino who told us to walk straight up the farmland via a narrow, muddy trek and we would find Parque Condor at the top! This was certainly a nonconventional path, but it was filled with beautiful vistas of the surrounding mountains, farms, and volcano.
We reached Parque Condor after 1.5 hour of trekking beyond the cascada and spent a couple hours there observing the rescued birds in rehabilitation (When possible, birds are returned to the wild after their stay at Parque Condor). We were also fortunate enough to witness an unscheduled free flight demonstration during which the bald eagle, Gringo (witty, aren’t they?), got to soar over the valley for about 20 minutes while we learned about some of the birds. It’s impressive the birds return, but they are clearly smart enough to know where they are getting consistent food! We saw many cool owls we’d never seen before and were closer to such large birds than ever before. Like the Belize Zoo, there are not miles of barriers between the animals and the people so we could get up close for photos and viewing, still at a safe distance.
We asked for clearer directions to the lago with a young woman at the park and were guided to an intersection. We followed the road and at the intersection we saw there were 4.5km to return to Otavalo and an unknown destination around the lake. Not knowing if we could definitely catch a bus from wherever we would be at the lake, we decided it was best to walk toward Otavalo. Since we had seen the bus route as described by our friend at the hotel, we were certain we would not pass one on this walk and as is just our luck, the dark clouds that dropped a quick shower when we reached the Parque Condor opened up for a torrential downpour as we walked in open farmland with nowhere to seek shelter! We were drenched in minutes and simply carried on carefully watching our footing on the slippery cobblestones. The rain stopped about midway into the walk and after about an hour we were overlooking the roofs of the town and followed the twisting downward mountain road back to familiar streets. All in all we walked for about 6 hours and definitely felt it in our calves and heels.
Rather than spend the next day on a bus, we opted for one more day in Otavalo to take it easy and rest our weary feet and make a final visit to the artisan market where ginnie finally found earrings she liked and Anthony successfully negotiated for the painting he’d admired since Friday evening. Otavalo has a lot to offer visitors with beautiful lagoons in the mountains and volcanoes to explore along with the vibrant, colorful market. We really enjoyed our stay.
Next Stop? Our journey continues with a visit to an aptly named town south of Quito where we will enjoy slightly warmer weather in the sub-tropical climate and will be at the lowest altitude in 3.5 weeks (at 1800m). The area is known for several hikes, thermal volcanic pools, and some extreme sports. We'll keep you posted!
Paz y Amor!
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