Day 11 began at 7am, with Diego picking us up at Hotel Quito. Again Diego was early, making him my new best friend. The 90 minute trip to Otavalo featured some spectacular mountain scenery and twisting mountain roads. However these roads were quite good. In comparison, they sure beat the mountain roads in Slovenia. Our first picture shows a volcano that is about 200 km away. It's height is roughly 18000 ft. This picture was taken from the side of the highway. I could take a thousand pictures of the landscape as we made our way to Otavalo. I will add one more for your viewing pleasure.
We arrived at, arguably, Ecuador's largest and most successful market around 9:30. I had a few goals for this adventure: to find a cheap soccer jersey, a wallett and possibly some leather shoes. Also I wanted to capture some video from the produce market.
My impression of the outer edges of the Market, initially, was that it was all the same stuff voer and over again. I had a hard time convincing myself that all this stuff was hand-made. How could they produce such volume? Diego informed me that there were lots of hand-made goods but you have to look carefully. Things with "Made in Ecuador" are legit. Everything else is questionable. With that in mind I refused all of the sales pitches from the people who tried to sell me things. Everything is negotiable here for the most part. I found a BSC jersey ( a club soccer team in Ecuador sponsored by my favorite beer) for $16. Diego shook his head discretely and we started to walk away. The price was cut to $10, but Diego said we could find the same jersey elsewhere for $8.
Our third photo of the day shows the street-side stands, something you only see on Saturdays. So this was primetime, and it was an absolute zoo as we approached the main square and produce market.
Please now see our 4th picture of day: Roasting pigs. Please also notice the young children waiting for some pork breakfast dishes. The fresh food being cooked from the fresh produce and animals was astounding. I was contemplating asking for a grilled chicken sandwich, but I was afraid I would have ended up with the feet and head too.
I could have taken hundreds of pictures of this market. In another video, not posted, I remarked: "These people are outta control and Walmart ain't got nothin on this place!" Seriously, I saw a stand that specialized in remote controls, one that had a million cell phones and another that had Huggies stocked to the roof. We started to see designer clothing eventually, and I was tempted to buy some jeans that were clearly from Japan (and yes, I can tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese characters).
I did indulge in a t-shirt shop called Body Art. In California, these designer t-shirts would cost you $50+, but here: $9. I know, some of you don't believe people pay $50 for a t-shirt, but believe me, people do. There were some pretty cool designs in this shop.
After about 90 minutes we moved on to Cotacaxi which is the Leather Capital of Ecuador (and possibly the World). The main street has about 50-75 shops that specialize in hand-made leather goods. Again, with the volume of things here I question the 100% hand-made thesis. One thing is clear about Cotacaxi: it caters to women shoppers. This makes perfect sense to me, that on average, women would spend more money here. However, for an outlier like myself it was a little frustrating. I was trying to find a pair of nice leather shoes and could not find the quality nor the quantity. Better yet, when I did find a pair, I found the cost to be too high. A pair of Clark's on sale at Macy's beat most of this stuff down here.
However I will re-state, for the lady in your life, this place is a shopping mecca.
I post no pictures from Cotacaxi since you can go to your local mall and see the same stores, roughly speaking. Maybe I am just getting lazy at this point, but there were no compelling photos.
Our final stop before returning to Quito was Cuicocha which is a lake covering a volcanic crater. The final photo of the day is from there. The afternoon clouds had rolled in, covering the crystal blue waters with gray shadows.
The 2 hour journey to Quito was pretty crazy if you have trouble being a passenger and no control over the driver. Diego is a great driver, but you must be aggressive down here, as I mentioned the other day. I slept in the front passenger seat, while Dad fretted in the back as we traversed the crazy mountain roads.
Well, folks tomorrow is our final day in Ecuador! This blog is coming to an end. (Or is it?)
Did you know: Ecuador's land mass was cut drastically in a war with Peru. Conflicts with Peru have been numerous with the last being in 1995.
No comments:
Post a Comment