Today we drove to Otavalo, a small city approximately 84km through the Andes from Quito. On the way we crossed the Equator, and stopped at a lookout. The lookout was to view the snow capped Cayamba Volcano, the valley and the river that runs from the volcano.
Otavalo is famous for its market which extends in multiple directions from one of the town squares. It is huge. Walking around we were able to see the difference in the artisanal styles from Peru and Bolivia as well as see a lot of women dressed in their traditional dress. Otavalo is one of the few towns left that still dress widely in their traditional clothes, for the women it is hand embroidered blouses and the men in ponchos with long braids. This is because the government has financially encouraged the indigenous people to live and dress in a way that maintains their culture.
On the way to lunch we stopped at a second view point which was in Cotocachi-Cayapa Ecological Reserve and overlooks an absolutely stunning crater lake in Cotocachi Volcano.
We stopped for lunch in Cotachi village and decided it was time to try the Latin American Speciality of Guinea Pig. Once we got over the fact that we were eating Guinea Pig we decided that it really wasn’t anything special. It tasted like the thigh meat from chicken and was quite oily but at least we tried it. Cotachi Village is famous for its leather production and goods so after lunch we of course went shopping!
We returned to Quito for the night and got ourselves ready to head to the Amazon Jungle again tomorrow, this time from the Ecuador side.
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