Otavalo
Otavalo has one of the most famous markets in South America. It's huge, although it is mainly for tourists. The town itself is okay, the bus route from Quito is teriffic. Almost all the locals wear traditional dress - men in blue ponchos, white trousers with pony tails. We arrived on friday afternoon by bus and found a wonderful hostal, set up like a little community with tiny rooms around a main square. It's a great way to meet other travellers, although there weren't may there at the time. Most tourists arrive for the saturday actually on the day, via orgainised buses from Quito. However me and Dave wanted to go to the edge of town very early on the saturday for the animal market, where cows, pigs and sheep are traded. Its an incredible sight although its best to leave any animal cruelty ideas at home... we saw animals kicked, tied up, dragged, carried in bags, but i guess its never going to be easy to control such an unruly herd of animals.
By now i was starting to feel dodgy for the first time in the holiday, i guess it could have been due to the argentinian mixed grill i had on the last night in Quito, but those intestines tasted okay at the time. I was starting to need the loo fairly regularly, and i really didn't enjoy or make the most of the main saturday market as i would have otherwise. The girls certainly made the most of it, buying all sorts of goods from art work to carvings, jewellery and chess sets. Dave also bought quite a wide range of goodies, and i suppose everyone came away happy. You can buy anything there, from novelty oversized jumpers and ponchos to stupid llama wool hats (which we got one of each). Thankfully, the market is very friendly and we were never over-hassled.
Unfortunately, after seeing grilled guinea pigs (cuy) in Banos, me and Dave were unable to find any in Otavalo, when we were both quite peckish and curious to see how they tasted. They didn't look too tasty when grilled, I would have preferred a fried one. We'd left the girls by now, they'd headed back to Banos to spend their extra couple of days. Lisa is a strict vegetarian and wouldn't have been too impressed if we had munched through what most people consider to be a domestic pet, especially after Dave and i expressed an interest in going to the weekly cock-fighting event (which we forgot about anyway). So instead we settled for the classic ecuadorian meal - meat, fried eggs and rice. We then went to a local bar, enjoyed a few cocktails and eventually saw a live band, but it took them ages to sort their equipment out. And if you ever see Dave, remind him that this is the town where he got 7-balled at pool, in front of an audience, and he only had 2 shots including the break. The balls were in good positions, but i was awesome, even if i do say so myself! Another strange sight was a cruise similar to one you'd see at Southend sea-front - 4x4's driven by guys with all their mates in, randomly honking their horns. Most locals had big vehicles, it's a rich town and large cars are useful for taking their goods to the twice-weekly market.
So then Dave and I headed back to Quito, for our last night in Ecuador - again we stayed at Posada del Maple but found it quite a lot more expensive with only 2 people compared to 4. We went back to Parque Carolina, and sunday appeared to be the busiest day of the week - there were literally thousands of people there, playing a whole host of sports from basketball to football, cycling and a strange bat an ball game designed for old men. The men just whacked a heavy ball to eachother with some sort of paddle, and somehow they managed to return it to each other along a narrow strip. The whole atmosphere was unlike anything i'd seen in the UK - all games were organised with referees, but they obviously couldn't afford kits. They were very good, and i guess that it is from these roots that a footy team capable of beating Brazil , and tennis players capable of beating Britain (not that difficult though) emerged. (Having said that Britain did gain revenge by beating Ecuador in Guyaquil last September). It was a great relaxing way to end the holiday. We were even summoned over to a large huddle of locals who were being entertained by a clown - standing out as tourists as we were, the clown made a few comments in spanish which made them all laugh at us. I haven't got a clue what he said, but we got a round of applause from everyone at the end, so it can't have been too bad.