Otavalo

The bus system is so easy and the coaches mostly comfortable. We got to Otavalo on Friday to be up early for market day. I wanted to get up at half passed four to watch the locals set up – WHAT IS SO HILAREOUS ABOUT THAT? At 4.45am we were all woken up anyway by the clanking and clatter of stalls being erected in the street below our hostel window; every narrow street and square in the town was filled with stalls by 8.00 am. There is an animal market on the outskirts of Otavalo and we walked there in the crisp morning air. Big black pigs and nervous cattle dragged their owners through the paved streets towards the market which was just a couple of small muddy paddocks crowded with all sorts of reluctant beasts; pigs, sheep, goats, cattle and horses. Local people, wearing ponchos, hats and wellington boots milled around making deals. Sometimes the animals lost control which added to the entertainment. Back at the craft market the rainbow colours of weaving, woolens, paintings, beads and instruments made my pocket smoke and Raquel and I spend nearly 5 hours disrupting the neatly folded piles. Eventually Nick and Graeme put a stop to it and we had to catch a hasty bus to Banos.