Otavalo Weekend

This weekend I journeyed to Otavalo with two friends. Otavalo is a small town about two and a half hours from Quito by bus. The bus ride there is quite an experience in itself. For about two bucks you get a true Six Flags experience in the form of a rickety bus careening through the mountains at speeds even Matt Kennseth would be jealous of. The bus ride back featured a few feathered friends as well—a man brought two roosters on the bus with him and they made their presence known more than once. Oh, Ecuador.

Otavalo itself is a really cute town, but like Ecuador as a whole is a city of contrasts. On the streets brand new Ford Explorers can be seen passing rundown buildings covered in spray paint. Abercrombie sweatshirts cover indigenous blouses. Vendors chat on cell phones while snacking on fried fish—scales and all.
We arrived in Otavalo (safely, praise the Lord) at about 5 on Friday and found ourselves a cute little hostel for $10. It was actually one of the more expensive hostels but we had our own bathroom, gorgeous rooftop views of the city, a common area with a fireplace, and breakfast was included as well. It was very clean and quant. Being the dork that I am I forgot my camera, but my friends took a lot of pictures and I will post some soon.

On Saturday we ventured out to practice our bartering skills in Otavalo’s market. Their market is one of the largest in South America and is what makes the city a popular tourist destination. From jewelry to blankets to sizzling skillets of potatoes and meat, the market had it all. After a few hours of perusing and purchasing, we decided to grab some food and head back to Quito. There isn’t much to do in Otavalo at night, except for a weekly cockfight that we were not too disappointed to miss. Apparently you can hike a bit around Otavalo too and see some waterfalls and stuff, but we were running low on money and energy and wanted to make it back to Quito before dark.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day, as usual. I’m still working on finding a church down here but have downloaded a few sermons from Elmbrook until I can. It works for now, but I really want to find some fellowship as well. After attempting a little homework I headed down to the Mariscal and met up with a few friends to watch the Packer game at a little sports bar. I was amazed at how many Packer fans there actually were. At least 25 of us cheered on the Pack from thousands of miles away. It was pretty quiet when the game ended and the bar cleared out quickly.

Carnaval is coming up in two weekends, so we are working on planning a pretty extensive trip. We have Monday and Tuesday off of school, which for me means I don’t have class for a week. Rumors of a trip to the beach and maybe Mindo have been floating around, but we shall see.

I hope everyone is surviving the cold! And for my fellow Badgers, have a great first day of class tomorrow!