Waking up on Saturday I was pretty stoked for two separate reasons. The first being that it was market day in Otavalo and the second being that we were headed out of Otavalo and on to Quito.
I had kind of talked about the Saturday market in several other posts but up until the actual day of the market I really didn’t know what to expect. The artisans and food portions of the market were very much the same as they are during the week, only on market day the stalls expand well beyond the central plazas where each typically is. The artisans portion is by and away the largest portions and nearly every street near the center of town is full of stands selling all kinds of things.
My favorite part of market though was the portion where they sell live animals. It actually wasn’t quite as big I had anticipated and there wasn’t as much livestock as I thought there would be but there were a ton of little furry creatures. There were puppies, kittens, chicks, bunnies, guinea pigs, piglets and all sorts of other small baby animals. Don’t fret, for the most part they were being sold as either pets or work animals and not to be eaten, except for the guinea pigs and possibly the bunnies. The most amazing thing of all was that you could buy a puppy for $3, yes that’s 3 American dollars. Ok, now I don’t know much about dogs but I’m pretty sure it’s hard to find a $3 puppy here in the states. They certainly weren’t pure bred or any of that jazz but I do know that they were cute.
By the time we’d had enough of the market it had just started to rain so our timing was pretty spot on. We had to go back to the hostel to grab our bags on our way to the bus terminal then we were off to Quito.
It’s about a 2 hour bus ride from Otavalo to Quito. In reality it’s probably only a 40-60 minute ride but because the bus stops every three minutes it takes much longer than it should. Believe it or not, I think I only managed to get frustrated once while we waited for 15 minutes at one spot for some guy and his livestock to get on the bus.
Once we arrived in Quito we learned that we actually had to take an hour long taxi ride to get to the hostel (there are two bus terminals but each of them are way outside of the city). So, it was about 630 or 7 by the time we finally made it to the Secret Garden, where we would be staying and meeting up with Devi. The reception happens to on the top floor of a four or five story building so lugging our bags up was not very fun but, once there, we were rewarded with an astonishing view of Quito.
Quito by night, from the top of the Secret Garden Hostel
Because it was Saturday and the hostel kicks everyone out of the common areas at 11, which is really weird by the way, the volunteers who worked there arranged to have a “party bus” come and pick up whoever was interested and take us to some clubs in town. I was pretty tired but was not going to turn down an opportunity to go out with a bunch of people and see the Quito nightlife. The first bar we ended up at was an Irish pub filled with English speaking bozos. I promptly asked the guys working the door where to go and they pointed me in the direction of a salsa club not too far away. The girls were as disinterested as I was in the pub so they came with me. We ended up staying at the club into the wee hours and eventually got a cab back to the hostel. But, the night didn’t end there. Once in the cab the girls decided they were hungry so our taxi driver whisked us off to a fried chicken spot. For some reason the girls were feeling extra generous and decided to buy our driver his third or possibly fourth dinner of the night. We were certainly making a scene in the place and that part of the night was almost as fun as the club.
In the morning the girls would be taking off, like I mentioned in the video, and I would at last be on my own to travel or do nothing at all. So… what did I end up doing? Well, you’ll have to wait for the next installment of “A La Orden.”
