ADIP: Otavalo Day Trip

A Day In Pictures
Otavalo Day Trip

On Saturday we took a day trip north of Quito to the Otavalo Market and surrounding area.

Otavalo has been a crossroads and market town for thousands of years.  Today tourists from around the world visit by the busload to bargain for rugs, sweaters, jewelry, art and local crafts.

While the market has become a bit of tourist show, it has made Otavalenos the wealthiest, most commercially successful indigenas (indigenous people) in Ecuador.

As we traveled into Ecuador’s northern highlands, the views were spectacular.

The market lived up to advance billing: colorful, vibrant, offering most every product imaginable.

But the Otavalenos were more interesting than anything offered for sale.

We left Otavalo to have a traditional Ecuadorian lunch in Otacachi, where we found this rather odd stature. Never did get the story behind it.

Next we stopped for a look at Laguna de Cuicocha in the Reserva Ecologica Cotachai-Cayapas, a huge reserve that protects western Andean habitats.

And as we headed back to Quito, we stopped at the equator monument near Cayambe. It doesn’t have the flash of La Mitad del Mundo – but it does have the advantage of actually being on the equator!*

*The very commercial La Mitad del Mundo monument north of Quito is actually several hundred yards off the equator.