Otavalo!

I just returned from the most amazing trip!

Friday after class, 5 of my friends and I met up at a bus terminal near here and grabbed a bus to Otavalo. It's two hours away and cost us $2. The ride there was incredible. We passed through winding roads in the Andes mountains, looking out over plummeting drops and ravines, rivers, mountains... beautiful.

We arrived before dark, hailed 2 cabs to bring us to a hostel my friend Julie reserved for us the night before. As we were driving there, we all started wondering if this was a good idea, because the taxis took us far out of town and onto a terrible cobblestone road, with speed bumps and indigenous people walking along the sides in traditional garb. Right at the point where we thought were done for - we were in the middle of nowhere! - they pulled over and we walked out onto the most adorable perfect hostel you could image. We climbed up a hill and saw all of these beautiful cottage-like buildings, with PERFECT views on either side. The owner of the hostel was the sweetest lady who spoke English and gave us a tour and made sure we had everything for the night. For $10, we stayed in this guest house, with plenty of beds and 2 bathrooms, and were served breakfast in the morning. She even gave us a lift to the market in the morning, too.

We took lots of pictures of the amazing vista and then hailed another 2 cabs and went downtown to a restaurant recommended by the cab drivers. The place was Gringo-infested but it was very traditionally-decorated and a band was playing music in the background. Everyone had a good meal and we all toasted to the randomness of taking a trip like this and so far it going splendidly. Otavalo at night was kind of sketchy - we were walking around a little after that but quickly settled into a little bar where a traditional Andean band would be playing at 10. Soon enough that place was pretty full too and when the music started playing, the whole place just felt alive. Andean music is so cool!! The band was great and one of the musicians alternated between playing Andean flute, regular flute, and the violin and I couldn't take my eyes off of him - he was so talented! He was getting into it more than the others too, jumping around and looking like he loved what he was doing. It made us all happy :)

We came back and went to bed, and we all noted how we felt like we were at camp, with 6 of us getting comfy in beds in the same room, deciding on the bathroom schedule etc. We had a good laugh because (as is normal in Ecuador) we weren't supposed to flush any toilet paper down the toilet, but just put it in the wastebasket. One of the girls, Julianna, had never heard of any one doing this and absolutely refused - she was so freaked out!

Anyway, we went to bed and woke up around 7 to get ready to go to the market. After our delicious complimentary breakfast, the nice hostel owner dropped us off first at the animal feria, where all the natives come to buy and sell animals. It was pretty smelly, understandably - there were cows, pigs (SO MANY), chickens, roosters, guinea pigs, sheep, dogs (which just run around everywhere anyway), and vendors along the side, roasting pigs and chickens that you just knew were alive like 2 hours before. Obviously we weren't there to buy anything but we were told it's just something to see at least once. And it was worth it.

From there we walked to the artisan's market and started shopping (the whole point of the trip!) Otavalo is known for its Saturday market.... streets and streets of stalls selling beautiful scarves, jewelry, paintings, blankets, you name it. You're also expected to haggle which was so much fun, and seems silly because everything is already so cheap. I bought SO MUCH... but everything was between $1-4, but also A PONCHO SWEATER WITH ALPACAS which was only $15, made of real alpaca wool. I also bought socks, a painting, a small women tapestry, a red coral bracelet, a woven beaded bracelet, like 4 friendship bracelets, a gourd carved into an owl, and a beautiful scarf. I didn't bring too much money with me on the trip, so it made me laugh as I left the last stall, realizing I was completely out of money. Anyway, I only needed two more dollars to get home :)

But first!! We took a local bus to Peguche, where you walk up a cobblestone path to a beautiful waterfall. After the bustling market (and even being used to Quito), it was so nice to walk along a nature path and behold the falls. We took lots of more pictures and walked along a path to the top, which was awe-inspiring and also exhausting. Standing in front of the falls on this bridge thing was wonderful - the chutes were spraying water and it felt great because it was so hot out! We had a nice break here. After, we took a bus back to the terminal and took a bus back to Quito.

We were all exhausted - you'd think the story would end here but while on the bus something really interesting happened and we didn't put the pieces together until we got off. We all sat near the back of the bus, and since there were six of us, these 3 guys moved seats so we could sit together. I noticed (without even thinking) that 2 of the guys sitting ahead of us stuffed a jacket between the seats, meaning we couldn't see them (I of course wasn't thinking that at the time.) The third guy was just standing up which is pretty normal, though it was a 2hr trip. From the side, apparently the guy was holding up a newspaper, also blocking the view into their seats, and also stuffed a jacket between the seats ahead of them, where Julianna and a nice older English man was sitting. I guess the whole time, the guy ahead of me was working under the seat, slashing the old man's bookbag and robbing him, while we had no idea! The standing guy was keeping watch. My friends apparently even saw him pay off the bus attendant a few times to not say anything! The whole time I was just talking to Lauren completely oblivious. We were told a million times to keep our backpacks on our laps for that exact reason. By the time we realized what happened the guys were long off the bus and the old man was somewhere else in the terminal.

All that to say - it sounds all scary to be warned that we might be robbed, but it made me realize that there are specific circumstances where it happens. And now that I've seen this - well, it seems SO obvious now. But we weren't in any danger of being robbed anyway because we knew what we were doing (also I had literally 75 cents left..... so yea)

Anyway, I'm back now. My host family is at a wedding tonight so I'm left alone to rest which is really nice. I'm very happy - the weekend was incredible and made me feel so much more at ease with traveling and rolling with things and getting around. It was all so easy, and so cheap!! And of course, you always have to be careful but between the 6 of us, we were definitely covered.

That's it for now :) I barely took any pictures because everyone else whipped out their camera every 3 seconds, so I'll be stealing theirs from Facebook very soon. I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend as well!

Love, Cyn