I was expecting Otavalo to be a small, quiet, old-fashioned village because it is known as a thriving indigenous community. It is nothing of the sort. It is a pretty, fairly modern city with stunning scenery, a nice collection of good restaurants, and tons of cool stores. The best thing of all is that it IS a thriving indigenous community and the locals seem affluent and comfortable which is nice to see. Women and men in traditional dress wander by teens in skinny jeans and ballet flats or puffy sneakers. Shops full of embroidered blouses share walls with American fashion stores and somehow this all makes sense and seems harmonious.
The large market day is on Saturdays, but there are a few small towns nearby that specialize in creating certain crafts like textiles and leather so we decided to head up North a few days before to explore the area. We took the bus from Quito to Otavalo around 12:30 on Thursday. The bus only took two hours and was a beautiful ride, so I was told, as I slept the entire time.
We stayed in Hotel Carazo, a large, modern hotel which has comfortable beds, carpeted floors, television, large closets, and spacious showers for $16 per person per night including breakfast.
They have rooms with mountain views that overlook the street, as well as quieter rooms in the back with partial views and they offer wifi for $2 per day. The breakfast is the usual coffee, eggs with ham, bread and juice. We did however see a few roaches, although not in our rooms. And there were creepy mannequins in the hallway.
On our first afternoon, we walked around the daily artisan market in Plaza de Ponchos, and then had dinner at an upstairs restaurant called Buena Vista right on the square. They have aerial views of the market below and pretty good food for the price. Two of us had filet mignon which was very tasty besides lacking the bacon that should have surrounded the steak, and I had spinach rice with vegetables which was actually quite good. They have happy hour from 7 to 8 and an adequate cocktail menu.
On Friday we went to Cotacachi, a smaller town, but by no means small, abut 20 minutes by bus from Otavalo. Cotacachi is famous for it’s leather stores spread out primarily along calle 10 de Agosto. They have stylish, chic handbags, bomber and motorcycle jackets, trench coats and blazers, belts, shoes, wallets and coin purses. My favorite were the bomber jackets for around $90, something you would easily pay about $250 for in the states, and the handbags and wallets which would easily retail for three times as much. My sister and I went crazy here and bought a total of 7 purses and three wallets. Great deals! They are all handmade, many of that soft, buttery leather that I love so much, and you can actually watch the artists make the handbags in their shops. These are just a few of our purchases.
We had lunch at Hotel El Meson de las Flores, which was in a charming, colonial courtyard and is the perfect place to relax for an hour after a shopping frenzy. We came back to Otavalo and had dinner at a restaurant on Sucre about a block from Plaza de Ponchos that had low hanging palm frond mats that made it feel cozy and enclosed although it was actually outdoors. It was Carina’s birthday so after dinner we had a delicious blackberry pie for $10 from the Shenandoah Pie Shop located in Plaza de Ponchos and some vanilla ice cream from Tia on Sucre near Calderon.
On Saturday w
e woke up early and went to the Animal market at around 7:00 and were pleased to see that we were the first tourists there. The animal market is huge and full of pigs, sheep, goats, cows, rabbits, chickens, guinea pig, ducks, geese, dogs and the people trying to sell them.
What really impressed me is how well the animals behaved. For such a chaotic environment there were really very few animals acting up and it felt very safe. People just weave in and out of cows, step over piglets , hop over taught rope tying sheep together, etc. For those of you who are worried you will find it disturbing because of the treatment of animals, you might, but most of the animals seemed very healthy - in fact only a few that I saw seemed lethargic, and it actually seems more humane than what we do to animals in the States. These are animals that are raised from birth by families and then sold here which is a lot better for the animals than being raised at a dairy for example. However, at one point we did see a family purchase a pig and put it in the trunk of a taxi to take it home, so proceed with caution.
While we were there an old lady started talking to us and tried to sell us some of her little woven belts. I bought one for $2 because I liked her smile. As we walked back towards town around 8:00 to hit up the ATM we passed tons of tourists walking towards the animal market and were glad we got up when we did. As we were walking we saw a man selling chorangos and my father found one that had an armadillo back, which was very cool.
When we were walking through the square we saw some ladies selling this homespun wool that my stepmother had wanted so we bought that and then went back to our hotel for breakfast.
As soon as we finished we hit
the market again. The Saturday market takes over most of the town and is really a site to see. It is much larger than I imagined and all sorts of things are sold here.I bought a little purse to hold my camera and money, three leather bracelets, and three beaded necklaces.
Zach bought two alpaca scarves, and peacock earrings.
Carina bought a wooden bowl, four scarves, two blankets, and the same little money purse as me, some gray beads, and two gorgeous hand painted trays.
Here is some of what we ended up with.
And we could have bought so much more!
For dinner we went to a brand new crepe restaurant that just opened in Plaza Bolivar. It has an interesting, eclectic décor with metal sculpture bar stools with breasts attached, a sideways bicycle installed on a wall, and metal cables coming down from the ceiling. We all had the chicken and mushroom crepe which was rich, covered in parmesan alfredo sauce and overall ridiculously delicious and fattening. The owner was charming and gave us little nuts and beans to munch on while he prepared our meals.
On Sunday we took the bus to Peguche, a small village about 20 minutes by bus which is known for their textiles. Most of the stores were closed because it was Sunday, but the largest one on the main plaza, El Gran Condor, was open and I bought a g
orgeous sparkly scarf in my favorite colors. After that we hopped on another bus to Agato. Unfortunately nothing was open on Sunday and we got stranded there for about half an hour while we waited for a bus.
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