Guinea Pig Lake

In Ecuador they don't just eat guinea pigs, in Cotacachi, 20 minutes from Otavalo they name their lakes after them!

Abs and me at Cuicocha

On Sunday morning we were up early and after a quick coffee we were picked up by David (a native Cotacachi)  who took us treking - bizarrely my fingers swelled to the size of chipolattas - the altitude I guess.

At 3,500m

Apparently on a clear day you can see the Cayambe and Cotapaxi volcanoes in the distance, we didn't see them.... We could only just see the nearer Mama Cotacachi and Taita Imbabura volcanoes because of the low cloud.

We plan to get up close and personal with Cotapaxi this Saturday - good Machu Picchu preparation!

Raine x

Plaza de Ponchos

After the craziness of the animal market and a breakfast of fruit and granola we headed to Plaza de Ponchos to visit the artisan market. Saturday's are renowned for being very busy but it's low season and there were only a handful of other tourists.

As with all markets, some of what's being sold really is tat but a lot of the stalls were selling beautifully handcrafted; tapestries, blankets, ponchos, jumpers, embroidered traditional blouses and fake shrunken heads (that's for another day...).

Spices

While we were browsing one stall I heard someone shouting "Abby and Lorraine" - Ben, Zoe and Lara, the children we'd met at our hostel in Quito had spotted us from a restaurant balcony - we had a quick chat and Mo & Martin (their parents) invited us over to their apartment for dinner one day this week - roast dinner, can't wait!

We bought some strawberries and a 'Guaba' pod (Aka Ice cream bean) from the street vendors as well as a few momentos.

Abs with a 'Guaba' pod

It was a hot day and we were soon all 'shopped out' and so decided to find somewhere for 'dos cerveza', en route we bought an empanada from a little girl who expertly handled the transaction and then continued on our way to a beer garden we'd spotted the day before.

Travelling is tough......

Raine x

Do chickens have ankles?

I was looking forward to leaving Quito on Friday. We bought our $2 dollar tickets and boarded the bus for the 2- 3 hour trip north to Otavalo. As we got further from Quito the clouds  lifted and the sun began to shine. The bus journey was pretty uneventful apart from the novelty of street vendors boarding the bus at every stop to sell, mandarins, crisps and icecreams for 50c. The mountain road was lined with eucalyptus trees and the smell made it in to the bus like a Magic Tree.

My first impression of Otavalo is that it's a friendly, vibrant city.

Otavalo Town Square

We woke early on Saturday to go to the animal market, a spectacle not to be missed according to the guidebooks. We left our hostel at 7am and knew we were headed in the right direction as occasionally someone would walk towards us with a goat on a lead or with a chicken being carried upside down by its ankles (chickens don't have ankles do they....) anyway, we crossed the main road and all of our senses were completely assaulted by the sound of pigs screaming, the sight of guinea pigs being held by their throats and the smell not only of the animals but of tripe and whole pigs being cooked (for breakfast!).

We saw a small number of tourists but this is not a tourist attraction, it's a local market for local people - we watch deals be done and pigs and cows change hands. It was a bit of a culture shock and I found it quite distressing; the sacks full of guinea pigs, rabbits and kittens for sale and particularly the sound of the pigs screaming - I was glad to leave.
We picked up a small bag of doughnuts from a street vendor and headed back to our hostel for breakfast before going to the Artisan market.