Otavalo (It's alpaca! It's the finest quality, look at it!)

Last weekend we got out of Quito for a couple days, and hit the road North to Otavalo, a town known around the world for the products made by the Otavaleños.

We left Quito about 4:00 in the afternoon, and just over 2 hours on our tour bus later, we got to Otavalo, and checked into our hotel for the night.  It was  a pretty sweet hotel.  After dinner in the hotel restaurant we had some chill time, and then bed.

The next morning we hit the markets.  It was a great experience, and I learned that the vendors there are *very* good at selling their products.  I guess that comes from practicing all day, 7 days a week.  I'd be walking along, glance at a stall with blankets, and before I knew it there was a blanket unfolded and in my hands, with the vendor asking how much I'd pay for it, since bargaining is a part of the market culture.  The first price offered is always too high, and is usually immediately followed by a 'but for you, I will make a discount'.  I found 40% lower than the first price asked for was kind of typical.  The group also discovered that sometimes walking away was the best bargaining technique.  Many times that was met with a 'wait, wait, I will accept your offer'.

Here's some photos from the market.  Stick around after them, there was more adventuring over the weekend, involving volcanoes again.

Street lamp in Otavalo, I thought it was beautiful.

Alpacas made with real alpaca wool.  So incredibly fuzzy.

In the middle of the market there was food section.

I didn't get a picture of them, but they were selling cauliflowers bigger than my head.  If I go back, I'm going to get a picture with one of them.  The cauliflowers, I mean.

Once off the main, straight road, the market was a twisty-turney maze of colorful fabric.

I didn't buy any rocks here, I promise.  They were pretty though.

Felt hats made in Ecuador.  There were also Panama hats everywhere, since they're made in Ecuador, not Panama.

Some of the typical types of art being sold.  Painted flowers, pressed and painted recycled paper, and pictures made from leaves and flowers.

Alpaca wool ponchos and sweaters were everywhere, and super fuzzy and warm.

Painted and etched gourds.

Around every corner was more stalls with colorful bags, scarves, sweaters, and blankets.  After 3 hours of wandering I still marveled at all the colors.

Very comfy looking hammock-swings.

Blankets (cobijas) were all over the place.  The colors were amazing and bright, and I am now the proud owner of the fuzziest blanket ever.

Tablecloths and scarves in bright colors

Duffel bags.  Beautiful duffel bags.  I might be coming home with one, especially if I can't fit all my stuff in the bags I came with.  We'll see.

Our next stop was Lago Cuicocha at the base of Cotacachi Volcano.  It is a crater lake about 3 km across, formed ~3100 years ago in a phreatic eruption (for you geo people out there).  There are two lava domes in the middle of the lake.  We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the lake and then some of us opted to take a boat ride around the lake, for a mere $2.75.  It was a beautiful day and a beautiful boat ride around the islands.  The guide stopped on the far side of the lake and told us some of the history of the area and how the lake was formed.  So now I've mountain biked down a volcano, and rode a boat in the crater of another.  I love the ring of fire...

Overlook of Cuicocha, the dock for the boat ride is on the far left.

We got the coolest life jackets to wear.  Mine was about 3 sizes too big.  Thanks to Cole, Michelle, and Kristina for unknowingly being in my blog.

Going between the two domes in the center of the lake

Our next stop was in the town of Cotocatchi, where they are known for their leather market.  We poked around for just a little while, the market was nowhere as big as Otavalo.  I'm not too much of a leather person, but if I was into leather purses and jackets, I'd have been in heaven, the items were beautiful.

Some of the coin purses available.

The little mouse purse might have been the cutest one there. (Thanks again to Michelle)

One of the stores with leather coats

The view out the window in the bathroom stall I used.  It thought it was super pretty.

After Cotocatchi we stopped in the town of Cayambe for cafe and bizcochos, which is a specialty of theirs.

The bizcochos were very buttery, semi-soft biscuits that we ate with coffee or hot chocolate.  The chocolate came with sugar, and after tasting it I realized why.  There was no sweetening of the hot chocolate there, but it was very good with the bizchochos.  We also got string cheese, which was a thin square rolled up, so the stringing went the opposite direction as string cheese back home.  It was very good cheese, BTW.

And this was the view of Lago San Pablo and Imbabura Volcano we got to enjoy for a goodly portion of the drive.  Going home in the late afternoon sun, it was spectacular, as so much of the landscape here is.

Post Script for Geo-people: I saw just about the sexiest fold ever in one of the road-cuts driving back from Otavalo.  These road-cuts are everywhere, since there's a lot of hills and they just put roads in the sides of them and through some of the smaller hills.  Mostly stuff is flat or gently dipping, but amidst all that I saw a near-perfect anti-form and other folding that had layers going almost vertical.  Unfortunately I was too busy swooning over it to get my camera out fast enough.  (My seat mate on the bus was a little worried when I suddenly cut off in the middle of a sentence to go 'it's so pretty!!' while looking at the dirt at the side of the road)  If I go back to Otavalo, I'm going to be sure to sit on the left side of the bus coming back so I can have a second go at pictures.