Sorry for the delay in getting the last day posted. I spend the last few hours of my spare time at the hotel dealing with lost phone issues including changing all my passwords. And then when I got home I got busy. But here it is!
We arranged our tour to Octavalo with Maria the other day when she picked us up at the airport. We advised her that on the Saturday we were looking for something to do that day and did she have any suggestions. She suggested Octavalo market, something we'd already done the research on, but weren't keen to make the arrangements to put ourselves on a big bus tour. She said she would be available to take up touring that day.
A personalized excursion seemed like the route for us because you can go at your own pace. I only have to convince one other person (Judith) if I want do anything on this trip, planned or not, so we accepted Maria's offer.
Our flight was scheduled for midnight that day, so we had to check out of our room and we left our suitcases with the hotel so we wouldn't have to lug them around. It felt sad knowing it was the last time we would check out on this trip.
We loaded ourselves into Maria's mini van and we were off. We drove for an hour before we entered the countryside--although the countryside looked like a patchwork of grey highway shotcrete to prevent slides on the hillsides. It did scar up the pretty terrain.
But there were some pretty vistas. We stopped at a lookout near where the road passes through the equator. On the left hand side of the picture, you can see the switchback that we just drove through.
We stopped at a restaurant to snack on brachocos, a pastry that you smother a caramel spread on. The area is known for this pastry. It's eaten with a rolled up piece of soft cheese. I'll admit it was very tasty. There was a family band plying Peruvian folk music. I didn't buy the CD, but did put money in their tip jar.
The restaurant overlooks two volcanoes. Our guide tells us that the area is overdue for an eruption. Fortunately it didn't happen when I was there. I guess I'll go back home and wait for our overdue earthquake to happen.
We head for the Livestock Market. By the time we get there it's not that busy. Some of the vendors appear to have left based on the gaps between the seller stalls. There are many animals for sale. The larger animals (pigs, llamas, alpacas, etc.) are kept in a separate pen that is fenced off. There are numerous posts evenly spaced inside the pen and each of the animals' harness is secured to one of the posts.
We walk past the vendors. In this market there is a mix of goods being sold. All of the other markets have tourist stuff: souvenir clothing, linens, accessories, artwork, etc. In this market there are vendors selling other items such as hardware, farming supplies. While there is lots of clothing being sold, there seems to be some vendors that target local residents as opposed to tourists.
At the end of this row was the small animal sales. We saw pens full of small chicks, guinea pigs and rabbits. Most pens seemed overcrowded. There were lots of chickens being sold, some of whom were housed in small cramped cages or had their legs bound with two others and were unable to stand. A few roosters were being sold; they were outside their cages, but tethered with a string from their leg to the cage itself.
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| Baby Chicks |
cock fights are held under them. I saw one in Mexico earlier this year -- and can can confirm that I have no interest in going again. It's a horrible, gruesome way to treat animals.
I'm somewhere near the middle of the continuum when it comes to animal rights and I will confirm that some of the sights were disturbing. The Livestock market isn't for anyone on the "higher" end of the continuum -- you would be very unhappy with how the animals are treated. There's a large gap between our Canadian standards of animal husbandry and Ecuador's.
Next up was the Otavalo Market. It's officially known as the Plaza De Los Ponchos Mercado. The market runs 7 days a week, but expands significantly on Saturdays. We get parking close by and start walking through over 100 stalls. There's lots of duplication, particularly for souvenir items, and bargaining is expected. We get an hour to have a look. I think it's way too much time but at the end, I think I could have stayed for another hour. Judith finds some original art, I get convinced to buy a leather hat. It looks way cooler than it is practical.
After the market we head out to get some lunch. It's a restaurant that clearly caters to the tourist trade. There's a all inclusive special that includes soup, main and desert. And at the end we find out our guide's meal is on the house because she brought us there. It was OK -- a nondescript meal -- nothing great but definitely nothing bad.
When we leave the restaurant our guide asks if we would like to visit the leather goods stores on the main road and meet her back at the square down the road. Otavalo is also known for its leather goods and I thought it would be interesting to see what was being offered. The stores have a wide range of beautiful goods from luggage, handbags, clothing and accessories. I could have spent lots but only came away with a purse for $32 US. A bargain I think.
We meet Maria at the square and then head back. On our way through Quito back to the hotel, I'm reminded of all the street vendors selling everything from toilet paper to freshly squeezed juice. There's no welfare in these counties; people must eek out a livelihood doing what they can. Our guide says she would never buy any of the freshly squeezed orange juice because the oranges are just lying on the ground and they're not washed before being squeezed. I have to agree with that. The vendors selling toilet paper is kind of amusing. You need the stuff but seems weird to pick up a 4 pack from a street vendor walking down the street.
We get dropped back off at the hotel at around 5:00. I rush to the front desk to see if anyone has been able to locate my phone, but to no one's surprise, nothing has appeared. The phone is worth about 2 weeks to 4 weeks wages, so I'm not surprised it hasn't surfaced. I had already put the phone into "lost phone" mode so I was fairly confident that the finder couldn't break in easily.
I'm somewhere near the middle of the continuum when it comes to animal rights and I will confirm that some of the sights were disturbing. The Livestock market isn't for anyone on the "higher" end of the continuum -- you would be very unhappy with how the animals are treated. There's a large gap between our Canadian standards of animal husbandry and Ecuador's.
Next up was the Otavalo Market. It's officially known as the Plaza De Los Ponchos Mercado. The market runs 7 days a week, but expands significantly on Saturdays. We get parking close by and start walking through over 100 stalls. There's lots of duplication, particularly for souvenir items, and bargaining is expected. We get an hour to have a look. I think it's way too much time but at the end, I think I could have stayed for another hour. Judith finds some original art, I get convinced to buy a leather hat. It looks way cooler than it is practical.
After the market we head out to get some lunch. It's a restaurant that clearly caters to the tourist trade. There's a all inclusive special that includes soup, main and desert. And at the end we find out our guide's meal is on the house because she brought us there. It was OK -- a nondescript meal -- nothing great but definitely nothing bad.
When we leave the restaurant our guide asks if we would like to visit the leather goods stores on the main road and meet her back at the square down the road. Otavalo is also known for its leather goods and I thought it would be interesting to see what was being offered. The stores have a wide range of beautiful goods from luggage, handbags, clothing and accessories. I could have spent lots but only came away with a purse for $32 US. A bargain I think.
We meet Maria at the square and then head back. On our way through Quito back to the hotel, I'm reminded of all the street vendors selling everything from toilet paper to freshly squeezed juice. There's no welfare in these counties; people must eek out a livelihood doing what they can. Our guide says she would never buy any of the freshly squeezed orange juice because the oranges are just lying on the ground and they're not washed before being squeezed. I have to agree with that. The vendors selling toilet paper is kind of amusing. You need the stuff but seems weird to pick up a 4 pack from a street vendor walking down the street.
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| Orange Juice Press and supplies. It's about 4:30 pm, those oranges have probably been there all day. |
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| Vendor selling fresh fruit. |
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| Vendor selling toilet paper -- photo taken on an earlier walk. |
We went for a small bite at the local restaurant. I was craving one of the fruit infused hot beverages. Judith, whose appetite was now fully restored, went for some desert. She definitely has room to put back on some weight after losing some this trip when her digestive system wasn't so happy with her. I spent the next hour or so changing passwords and such. I had my work cell phone with me and had to charge it up to make it my new contact phone. Once done I work on the blog because I was behind due to being a bit preoccupied with a lost phone. It doesn't get finished until two weeks after returning home because I get caught up in all those procrastination things I'm so good at.
One of the guides came to pick us up for the ride to the airport. We get there in plenty of time and after boarding the plane we find out that the plane has been over-fueled. The jet fuel doesn't get siphoned off; instead we sit on the tarmac with the engine running until the requisite fuel has been burned off. It's a waste, but no one asked me. The bad news is that the connecting flight I have home was tight to begin with and the delay is making it worse. By the time we land in Houston, and I clear customs, I've missed my connection. I'm into a long lineup of people trying to re-book new connections; my goal is to be home in time to make my Mom's Sunday dinner. So I learn that United has already rebooked my connections after learning that the flight was delayed, so I already had a connection through Calgary.
Once I got my new boarding pass and new tags on my luggage, I had 30 minutes before boarding would start. I went to find Judith at her gate because I was in such a rush to get my connection (which I didn't make) that I didn't say a proper thank you and good-bye. But she was not at her gate and I later find out that she was pacing the halls to prepare for her long flight. I'm disappointed.
I head back to my gate. The rest of the flight was uneventful and my sister Syl is at the airport to pick me up. I arrive home in time with an hour to unload my bags and start laundry before I head over to my Mom's for her fabulous home cooking.
