Otavalo

A couple weeks ago (like 3weeks...sorry I haven't had much time to update my blog) we took a trip to Otavalo. It's a town famous for it's Saturday market which is suppose to be the largest crafts market in South America. Our school was planning a trip to the market for $30 but Lonely Planet said we could get there for $2 each way, so about 10 of us from the school decided to try and get there ourselves, taking local transportation. It took 2 buses and 2 hours but we managed to make it. The bus dropped us off at the side of the highway in Otavalo and we then make our way down into town and to the market.

When we first arrived at the market I was a bit surprised because it had a ton of stands selling knock-off clothing (in Ecuador that means American Eagle, Aeropostale, Hollister, Nike, Addidas, etc.). As we walked further into the market we discovered the real crafts and merchandise we wanted. The market was huge and a giant maze, with us pretty much losing everyone we started out with.

One of the cool things was seeing all the merchants in their traditional clothing. The men have long ponytails and wear calf-length white pants, rope sandals, ponchos and dark felt hats while the women wear white embroidered blouses, long black skirts, a shawl and gold beads around their neck.

One of the other interesting experiences was trying coca leaves, which are legal to grow in Ecuador. At first we tried a candy made with coca which numbed our mouth and made our tongue tingle. Then we tried the actually leaves. People chew the leaves but I'm not sure why because it tasted  pretty disgusting - pretty much like eating a leaf. In the Amazon we tried coca tea, make with freshly picked coca leaves and that was actually pretty good.