Kelly: Mercado in Otavalo

Went to Otavalo this weekend! There are many more photos from the others in the group… will post the good ones when they are loaded on the facebook.

Día Uno:

• garbage trucks play fun tunes
• ate lunch at a beauuuuuuuutiful vegetarian restaurant that was totes spanish inspired: cafe con leche, tortilla española, live band, beautiful flowers, fun conversations (vampires, birds, vacations, music, etc.)
• crazy big market!!!! so many beautiful things and fruits and veggies for sale! lots of bartering. I got an alpaca shawl and sweater with llamas on it. Will return with my padres de los EE.UU. and exploit their financial resources.
• hiked to a tree/plant called Lechero that sits by itself on top of a big hill. Apparently it has healing/magic powers. We hugged it. Bought popsicles (aka fresh fruit juice frozen in a plastic cup with a stick stuck in it) on the way down and got “Hola”ed several times by a truck full of niños.
• we (the eight of us) bought a bunch of fresh veggies and made a stir fry with quinoa (plus piña y radishes on the side)… también cervesas. Total cost per person= $2 (including booze). Score!
• went out: sat at a restaurant and drank a bit, went to a club where we thought there would be salsa dancing, but it was too fast for salsaing… then a terrible live band took stage… we left.
• back to the hostel and chatted on the roof for a while before we went to bed. The beds were free of bugs, we think/hope.

Día Dos:

• found a fair trade/tourist shop where we had “Real Coffee,” which I was definitely in need of. Usually they use instant coffee here, which isn’t too bad actually, but not close to coffee made from freshly ground beans with a little creamer and brown sugar. Mmmm
• meet a guy via couchsurfing.com who showed us around the waterfall Peguche. I rode in the bed of the truck on the way back to the hostel—first time I’ve gone through a city like that. He was super cool and is coming salsa dancing in Quito on Wednesday. I say yes to a middle of the week dance break.
• ate lunch, boarded a bus back to Quito… slept most of the way
• navigated public transit (well, mi amigo did… the other two of us mostly followed) and made it back to my casa
• Mis padres adoptivos y mi hermano made me sing karaoke… yay Queen!

I need to take a shower real bad and buy something to rub the gross skin off of my feet.