Day 15 – Otavalo Market

June 18 – 4:01pm

We woke up early this morning to go to the Market in Otavalo. Hostel Maria has surprisingly comfortable beds for only being $7 a night. Pretty sweet.

We got up especially early to go to the Animal Market in Otavalo, which runs from 6am to 10am. It was pretty crazy and super disturbing. I’ve never seen animals so poorly care for. Puppies with ropes tied around their ankles. Guinea Pigs being lifted up by their heads and then tossed back in the pile. It’s sick actually. Baby piglets with cuts on their legs from the ropes used to tie them to things. It really made me nauseous and the other volunteers didn’t feel any different. We all saw way more than we needed to see.

We went for breakfast at a little coffee shop and had French Toast… with no syrup. Dissappointing.

After that, it was time for the main show. The crafts market. It was super wicked. I love hand-made shizz. I spent like $100 and got presents for just about everyone including myself. Super sweet. I got a necklace with a bear carved on it. Sweeeet.

I got Amelia a blue Ecuadorian poncho and a pink hand-woven bag. I got my mom a bracelet and a really awesome hand-woven table cloth. I got Ben a sweet-ass hammock. I got Professor Altfeld a hand-woven bag. I still have to get Warren and my dad something yet. Too hard to figure them out.

After shopping, we ate lunch at this pizza place in Otavalo. This place had delicious pizza, but it was definitely a little gross. We got like a large pizza for $5 that had mushrooms, chorizo, beef, pepperoni, and ham on it. Weird thing though… no sauce. Still delish though.

We caught the 3:00pm bus back to Intag. There was a huge festival for the village of Pucara’s saint. But, by the time we got there, everyone was already plastered off their asses. And… the only thing they seemed to know how to do was ask to dance. I politely declined and returned to the house. I was not down with like 100 drunk men asking me to dance every five minutes. Super lame. We had people passed out on our porch and everything. Totally effed.

Love and Andean Bears,
Ashley