Markets in Otavalo

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 photos!). We weaved through the crowd of people and animals who were (much to Arlene´s distress) awaiting their fate on the locals chopping boards. The market was completely alive and we really felt in the thick of it with the locals. With our muddy shoes and pantalones we headed to the art market...most of the stuff was either too heavy or a bit tacky, so we didn´t buy much...but we sampled some of the local sweets which is never a waste.

We were overly disappointed to find that the weekly cock fight (a main reason we came to this lil town) wasn´t on because of elections the following day. We know its kinda sick to want to watch one animal peck another to death...but its banned lots of places in the world... and it would be kinda cool in a sadistic kind of way wouldn´t it...oh well, there is always next time ;-)