Otavalo has population of 70,000 and is well known for it's Saturday Indian Market. For hundreds of years, indigenous people from over 70 surrounding villages have brought their crafts and produce to barter and exchange. There is also an animal market but even at 7:30 a.m. I was still too late to see it. Now, many tourists come to buy souvenirs and of course, that is what I did. There was a main square full of booths and then it just spilled over into all the surrounding streets. At one point, I had no idea where I was because you couldn't orient yourself and I wanted to get back to the main square. Some examples of items: artwork and some beautiful paintings, scarves, alpaca scarves, ceramics, handbags, baskets, hats, embroidered towels and pan pipes and other types of musical instruments. I also came across the fruit and vegetable market and that was interesting and a bit smelly. The farther I got away from the traditional craft goods, it became more of a market for the locals. They had jeans, shoes, shirts and household items, and many stands with DVD's but they are all copies.
Everyone was eating and there were carts being walked down the street that had a portable BBQ. They also had a whole cooked pig sitting on a table and they would just fill up a plate from the back side of it and cut away to it's head. They also had whole fish being fried in big pots and laying out on the table. I had to take a picture but I chose pass and had a really good pizza. At one point, I was standing near an older man and he had a bag down by his feet, the next thing I know, it starts moving! And squawking! He must have bought chickens at the animal market this morning. I had to laugh.
Later, when I arrived back in Quito and compared prices, you could get the same scarf for about half the price at the market.
It was an exhausting day and I spent the rest of the afternoon reading and catching up on my journal.
