Quito, Ecuador-Part 4-the trip to Otavalo

Quito, Ecuador-Part 4-the trip to Otavalo

After a great night’s sleep from the previous day’s hard travel, I was up at 6:30 a.m..  Jim and I had agreed to meet at the bottom of the hill and travel to the town of Otavalo. 

Otavalo is supposed to have one of the best markets in Ecuador.  Even though the big market is on Saturdays, I had read there is still plenty of shopping in the town square on Sunday.    

We met at the appointed time and hoofed it the next ten (10) blocks to the school so Jim could show me the route for when I walked it myself on Monday. 

Near the school was a bakery with fresh baked Ecuadorian pastries.  We chowed down on pure sugar for about a buck each and then caught a city bus(25cents) to the main bus terminal, Terrestre.

Terrestre was a known entity to me because I had caught a bus from there three years ago to Tena, Ecuador where I did a  jungle language immersion program. 

Terrestere can be very overwhelming at first.   It is very noisy,lots of commotion.   Every  bus vendor in Ecuador is shouting out their destinations.  It is intimidating to try to figure out from which bus line to buy your ticket. It is also well known as a place that has its share of pickpockets and plenty of opportunities to lose your backpack.    I went with my experience and picked a familiar looking ticket window.  15 minutes and a couple of dollars later we were on the bus to Otavalo.

The ride to Otavalo took about 2 hours.  All during the trip there were vendors that contanstantly got off and on.  It was like a revolving door.   They were selling water, potato chips, peanuts, newspapers, etc.  I bought 3 CD’s for $1 each and a newspaper for $1 simply because they did a great sales presentation for the bus crowd.  When we left Terrestere there were only about 10 people on the bus.  The farther we went, the more people got on from little roadside stops.  Finally, we were full. 

We traveled up into the mountains through some of the most beautiful countryside passing through Imbabura and then Mira Lago. 

We arrived in Otavalo at 10:30 a.m

To read about my other travels click here

Steve Barrymore ssb11@prodigy.net

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