Tuesday, July 25, 2006
The Otovolo Market
On Friday Gayl Bowser, Osima, and I went to a travel agency to see what was possible for a tour. I had gone through this earlier and knew we could not make it to Otovolo because that is when the rest of the group was to show up. Gayl pointed out that the group would not show up until 10 PM. Stupid me, thank God for women! So we paid $39 each for tickets for the next day to Otovolo Market. We also left an email message for Stacy Springer and Linda Wilson to sign up for the trip as well if they got our message.
Early breakfast, caught the Grayline bus and off for Otovolo with all five of us. The trip itself was very exciting. We climbed up the sides of many many mountains and looked over the edge at the river valley WAY WAY below. Our bus chugged up the mountains and we were continually passed by cars and trucks in no passing zones. Often the passers did not make it by the bus in time, but the on comming traffic tended to move over and let the crazy people pass.
We stopped at Cayambe and ate bizcoches (cheese of the leaf), a warm buttery baked bread along with guseole cheese. We also watched as women made ornaments from a flour and water clay. The original objects they made were edible and used on All Saints Day, the first day after Halloween. Families would then take the bread in the shape of a baby for girls and in the shape of a llama for boys to the cemetary to honor the dead. Today they varnish the clay items and primarily make christmas decorations.
There are markets all over Ecuador and every day there is an marrket going on somewhere, but the Saturday Otavalo market is the cream of the crop in all of Ecuador. Indigenous people from all over come to this market. I had seen one other market, but this one was huge!! I was fascinated by the colors, some stark, some so very beautiful. I was impressed with the woven items, scarfs, shawls, rugs, etc. Also the knitted items and just the amount of products available.
I talked to two of the others that went along and they saw quite different things. They checked out the spices, the food stalls, where they were cooking plantains, potatoes, beef, lamb, and pork. I do not think these stalls would pass our health codes, but they were quite popular. The women also were very interested in the traditional dress of the indigenous people.
The market is a place where the people all expect you to haggle with them. I ended up with an alpacha sweater for 12 dollars, an Ecuador woven purse, a wall hanging, and much more. It is the custom to ask before taking pictures in Ecuador. It is also common to offer to pay for taking the photos. I found a one man band and gave him a dollar. I took several other photos at that price, only to find out that one dollar is quite a bit of money in Ecuador. Most had offered 10 cents or a quarter.
After Otovolo we went to Cotacatchi a town known for leather products. There were many shops with beautiful clothing, purses, suitcases, briefcases, billfolds, etc. These people were a little tougher to bargin with, but all of them did bargin.
I am having some problems getting photos up to the blog. It is not the software, but I am operating from internet cafes and do not have access to software like Photoshop to reduce the size of my photos to a size that will work on the blog. I will keep working on it because I have over 300 pictures so far and a few of them are quite nice.
Early breakfast, caught the Grayline bus and off for Otovolo with all five of us. The trip itself was very exciting. We climbed up the sides of many many mountains and looked over the edge at the river valley WAY WAY below. Our bus chugged up the mountains and we were continually passed by cars and trucks in no passing zones. Often the passers did not make it by the bus in time, but the on comming traffic tended to move over and let the crazy people pass.
We stopped at Cayambe and ate bizcoches (cheese of the leaf), a warm buttery baked bread along with guseole cheese. We also watched as women made ornaments from a flour and water clay. The original objects they made were edible and used on All Saints Day, the first day after Halloween. Families would then take the bread in the shape of a baby for girls and in the shape of a llama for boys to the cemetary to honor the dead. Today they varnish the clay items and primarily make christmas decorations.
There are markets all over Ecuador and every day there is an marrket going on somewhere, but the Saturday Otavalo market is the cream of the crop in all of Ecuador. Indigenous people from all over come to this market. I had seen one other market, but this one was huge!! I was fascinated by the colors, some stark, some so very beautiful. I was impressed with the woven items, scarfs, shawls, rugs, etc. Also the knitted items and just the amount of products available.
I talked to two of the others that went along and they saw quite different things. They checked out the spices, the food stalls, where they were cooking plantains, potatoes, beef, lamb, and pork. I do not think these stalls would pass our health codes, but they were quite popular. The women also were very interested in the traditional dress of the indigenous people.
The market is a place where the people all expect you to haggle with them. I ended up with an alpacha sweater for 12 dollars, an Ecuador woven purse, a wall hanging, and much more. It is the custom to ask before taking pictures in Ecuador. It is also common to offer to pay for taking the photos. I found a one man band and gave him a dollar. I took several other photos at that price, only to find out that one dollar is quite a bit of money in Ecuador. Most had offered 10 cents or a quarter.
After Otovolo we went to Cotacatchi a town known for leather products. There were many shops with beautiful clothing, purses, suitcases, briefcases, billfolds, etc. These people were a little tougher to bargin with, but all of them did bargin.
I am having some problems getting photos up to the blog. It is not the software, but I am operating from internet cafes and do not have access to software like Photoshop to reduce the size of my photos to a size that will work on the blog. I will keep working on it because I have over 300 pictures so far and a few of them are quite nice.
