Otavalo: El Mercado

Well I hope all is still well in the states! Here are two new blogs, the first about my trip two saturdays ago to Otavalo, and then the Los Baños!

OTAVALO

Otavalo is located in the northern highlands of Ecuador, about 2 hours north of Quito. My friends, Sarah, Anouk, Heather and I took a bus in the morning to visit one of the largests outdoor markets in Latin America. This annual saturday market has existed for many many years, as the Otavalo Indians have sold food, fruits, grains and vegetables, and also hand woven goods like blankets, scarves, shawls, ponchos, socks, etc. Earlier in the morning there is an animal market as well; when we arrived we saw women carrying chickens by the food in their hands, most likely, not meant to be new pets. Otavalo is the name of the town and also the name of the people who sell goods there; the people have much pride in their culture and dress as they have for years, men with black felt hats and ponchos with long hair in a ponytail, and women in traditional made dresses.

Otavalo was pretty touristy, a lot of foreigners, but also Ecuadorians shopping to pick up produce. I loved looking at all the fruits and vegetables; there was such a variety and some very strange things as well. We met a man from the UK who offered us to try a very strange looking fruit, which had a fuzzy texture, but was tasty and apparently is good for the digestive system. "What is this fruit," we asked the man and he simply said "I don't know," he said matter of fact. I liked his philosophy. So we ate it anyway, and no one had to make extra trips to the bathroom. Some fruits that were sold in market and are very popular here are:

Tomate de árbol: Tree tomato. This fruit grows in small trees, and looks like an apple, but more oval shaped. Most often made into juice, this is really tasty, kind of like an orange, citrisy flavour, but not as sharp as an orange.

Naranjilla: This small orange colored fruit, with tomato like skin, makes really nice juice as well, and has a very sweet orange flavour.

Guaybana: This is a fruit that looks like a lemon, but more oval shaped. The inside looks like a more pink pomegrante. It is also made more juice and also we had some nice Guaybana jam. I, the farmers market lover I am, decided to buy one to try, it has a peel, so I figured it would be safe to eat. Well, as soon as I opened it and took a little bite, I look at the fruit and see it's moving!! What a nice surprise to find a friendly worm also enjoying the fruit. Luckily I saw it soon, I spit out the fruit, and as far as I know, two weeks later, all is well with my stomach and digestive system. Close call, (don't freak out mom) next time I will be more careful.

I found Otavalo to be very touristy, and many things sold were marketed to foreigners. Things that simply say "Ecuador" on them just for the hell of it were popular as well. I bought some nice scarves for $1.50 each (haggling here is accepted of course) and also a scarf made of Alpaca wool (veyr soft, like a highland llama) All in all, every stand sold pretty much the same things, but all the goods were very beautiful. My friends and I had lunch as Casa de Frutas, a veggie friendly place we found in the Lonley Planet (thank you Sara Kuck!!) Also, everywhere in Ecuador stray dogs are very common. At this market, a lot of dogs walking around all the street food vendors, looking for scraps. Krysta, I gave one skinny mother dog some bread, so that made her day.