Otavalo Travel Blogs

We all were tired, so the idea of waking up early in order to go to Otavalo first thing in the morning was a bit unrealistic, hehehe. The cleaning lady was supposed to come on Friday, but nobody was at home, so she showed up on Saturday morning, pffff. She would just clean downstairs, since we all …

Otavalo is a very pleasant market town just north of Quito. On Saturdays it hosts one of the largest artisan and food markets in South America with plenty of high quality examples of indigenous craftwork for sale. At least that"s what the guidebooks say. I didn"t care about the guidebo…

Since I left Lima, my plan was to go to Otavalo on a Saturday. My plan was very flexible, except of this detail, hehehe. This day I woke up early and was getting ready, when I went downstairs I saw William had already prepared breakfast. It was a typical American breakfast: eggs - he used some of t…

We set our alarm for 6am and dragged ourselves groggy-eyed to the local animal market, where we were engulfed by locals in their gorgeous traditional dress of vibrant coloured ponchos, pork-pie hats, lace-up sandals, and intricately embroided lace blouses (We took lots of sneaky photo…

I have been to otavalo lots of times, because my dad has an office there, but this time I decided to take my camera with me. And I don't know, it seemed so amazing!!!... Everything!!!... It's like for the first time, I really saw Otavalo... So here are some pics... I'll write a little more tomorr…

I had high expectations of this trip but so far Ecuador is exceeding all expectations.  Everywhere you look, there is jaw dropping scenery.  Quito is surrounded by mountains, but the journey from Quito to Otavalo was even more impressive with mountains that you can´t see the top of due t…

Sometimes they say that life is stranger than fiction. As I stood outside the bathroom next to the cock fighting pit looking at newspaper clippings and talking to a man about his friend in the photos, who of course is a world champion speed walker at multiple distances, and how they train in the hi…

We´re at Casa Mojanda now and its absolutely beautiful. On the afternoon in which we arrived I immediately took the opportunity to do the 20 minute hike to this waterfall in the hills. I went with about 5 people and I was the first one ballsy enough to jump into the freezing cold water in my cloth…

KERRY- Today we sampled the Ecuadorian buses as we headed off to the Market town of Otavalo. We caught  a taxi to th bus station - a very nice man called Mauro took us into town, after having an argument with the first taxi driver we bartered with, for overcharging us.…

so we heard about the markets in Otovalo.. but i think i might have underestimated them a little.... there was seperate markets for animals, food and crafts... all of which were very interesting!! The streets were filled up wisth stalls selling everything from guinea pigs, to blankets, to pig feet,…

Crossing the border from Colombia to Ecuador was much easier than my journey 3 weeks ago. I got the first collectivo from Pasto to Ipiales which is 6,000 COP and only took an hour and a half. Then took a taxi to the frontier, they charged my 7,000 COP. The customs on both the Colombia and Ecuador s…

I´m spending around 1 year in South America, I had an amazing time. Enjoy my pictures, I'd do it again.

traveling along the years

Really an unexpected stop, but an enjoyable one. We found out about this jewel from one of our rides while we were on our way to Quito . . . so we thought. We figured, why not stop off here really quickly and check out the infamous "Mercado de los Ponchos" and meet the country's Indigenou…

This blog is to keep friends updated on my move to Ecuador. Dirk is coming with to keep an eye on me