Otavalo

Street scene of market in Otavalo

After leaving Quito, I went to Otavalo, which was 95km north of Quito. It was famous for its Saturday market because all tourists would be dizzled by it's indigenous and colourful crafts and textiles.

The animal market in the early morning.

The fruit market.


The dream catchers in the handicraft market.

The colourful indigenous hats.


As I still has a long journey to go, so I put lots of effort stoping myself to buy any beautiful crafts here, so as not to increase the burden of my backpack.(So my friends, don't expect any sourvenirs from me, hehe)

Sometimes I found it really confusing for the price the vendors asked for. Normally, I think the price should be cheaper later at the day as most tourists have gone (the logic of the 'flower market' in HK), but I found it didn't apply here. It's seems they don't have a logic to price. Sometimes the price go up crazily when compared with the morning.

But the better way to bargin I think it's starting from half of the price they asked for, just like the vendors in some tourist place in China. I found this market was really huge, it spreaded from the plaza to all the streets surrounding, from animal market, to fruit/wet markets to all the handicrafts, it was so amazing! After the Saturday market has gone, I was really not used to the empty streets!

But as I live here for a longer time for the spanish classes, I know myself like the week days of Otavalo rather than the weekend as it's much more quiet and peaceful. And I like here more than Quito as the people are so friendly, the streets are less dangerous (I don't need to worry about walking alone here) and the air is less polluted.