Today was mostly about shopping…. Quito to Ovatalo

My brain is almost as packed with facts learned today as all the bags I brought with me are packed with wall hangings and other artisan products.

After a great night’s sleep I was up even before my alarm to jump on the bus to head out of town today. Our destination was 1.5 hours north of Quito in the Andes to Otavalo. It is the site of the largest artisan and produce market in South America.

We drove through beautiful green rolling hills with the occasional peak of a dormant volcano thrown in. I was surprised to learn there are Acacia Trees here, like we saw in Africa only without the giraffes. OK, I stole that joke from our CEO. The highway we drove along is part of the 48,000 km Panamerican Highway and approximately 4 hours further north is the Colombia border.

As we drove along our CEO regaled us with factoids about Ecuador. Each of the provinces of Ecuador is named after either a volcano or a river and since there are 84 volcanos on the mainland, there are lots of names from which to chose. Fortunately only 9 are active. There are 4 regions and I will visit 3 of them on my trip. Quito and Otavalo are in the Highlands – the Andes. We will reach the Amazon region day after tomorrow and after the Peru portion of my trip I will return to Ecuador to visit the 3th region, Galapagos. The other region which I won’t visit is the coastal region. Not widely known for its beaches, Ecuador has some nice ones nonetheless.

One of the current political issues here is that there are a lot of Venezuelan refugees coming into all countries surrounding it and Ecuador is taking its share. Ecuador is a Democratic Republic and they elect their President every 4 years. The current President is Lenin Moreno and he leans towards the left politically.

I won’t go into too much history here, but the indigenous people were first conquered by the Incas, who were only in this region for less than 100 years before the Spaniards ran them out and took over. Ecuador gained its Independence from Spain in 1822. Simon Bolivar factors prominently in Ecuador’s history as he does in Bolivia and Venezuela.

The Otavalo Market was really something. Once again, I got so caught up in the moment that I didn’t take any pictures other than the one above of me with the lovely lady who negotiated hard with me on the purchase of a hanging. There were artisans with lots of textiles, silver, musical instruments, as well as food. A pile of chickens was sitting on one table, with chickens feet on another. And the ubiquitous corn in a million varieties, along with lots of different kinds of beans and grains. The people were keen to sell their wares, but not overly aggressive and they expected you to bargain. Now I’m the worlds worst bargainer. I just want to pay the price and be done with it, but one of my fellow travellers helped me get into the spirit of it and it ended up being fun. Maybe because the people are so warm.

It was getting to be lunch time and we were expected at a community educational centre, both for lunch and for a demonstration of some of the local culture. Jose, seen in the picture below explained all the symbols in this huge wall art to us, and I ended up buying a much small version of this in a woven wall hanging.

Corn is a hugely important part of the Indigenous people’s diet. Hmm, where have I heard that before. Almost everywhere.

Jose showed us how to use this Spanish style loom, which they use to make the most gorgeous work. Table runners, hangings, scarves, blankets, etc. Most with some alpaca in it mixed with sheep’s wool.

You can see some of the gorgeous hangings on the wall behind our group. The colours were amazing and there is such symbolism in the art. Everything seems to have a meaning.

After learning an incredible amount we moved into the dining area for an amazing lunch, which is the largest meal of the day for Ecuadorians. We started with two kinds of soup, with all sorts of things to add according to our taste; cheese, grilled corn, avocado, beans and more. Then potatoes (they grow 300 varieties of potatoes in Ecuador!) corn on the cob and the most fabulous chicken cooked in an oven that looks a little like a pizza oven. It was so tasty. Desert was this unusual fruit shown below – a tree tomato. It grows on trees much like a pear, but has pulp and seeds inside that are just like a tomato. They prepare this desert by putting the fruit in a syrup and it was an interesting texture but delicious.

Next it was off to learn about a more primitive loom, the Backstrap loom. As you can see, the fellow below has a backstrap, made from reeds in this case, but also sometimes made of leather, which holds the loom in place. This is painstaking work and the product is so refined looking.

Here he is working on a larger piece. The wooden paddles that he uses to make the pattern are not light and my back hurt just watching him.

We learned all about how the wool is cleaned, carded, spun in to skeins and died.

And here are some of the products…..oh, and I might have left some $$ behind here as well.

We managed to time it right so that we missed most of the rain this afternoon, it’s rainy season so we will expect rain every day at about 3 pm.We drove the short distance to a lovely historic hacienda where we’re staying tonight. It started as a 7000 hectare cattle range but now only 16 acres are still held by the 7th generation of the same family. The current owner’s father, who passed away just last year, was a horseman, and won many trophy’s and international jumping competitions. There are still horses on the property and we had the option of going horse back riding tomorrow. Yeah, not going to happen as horses are one of the two things to which I’m allergic.

After a bit of a rest and downloading my pics from today I wandered some of the property and the main house. It was converted into a hotel 22 years ago, but is now a little tired. But it still maintains its charm in a huge way.

After a meeting with our CEO is this beautiful bar area (sorry for the tiny pictures. Wifi issues) we were offered cinnamon tea and a welcoming shot of something. I’m not entirely sure what it was. An Andean Band entertained us with pan pipes and flutes, and their beautiful voices. It will be one of the memories I cherish about this trip. Then it was on to the dining room for some potato soup, a Ecuador specialty. It’s served with cheese and avocado. That and a bun was all that was needed as our lunch was so huge.

We’re up high and with the dampness it was cool this evening, but I came back to my room to find a hot water bottle between my sheets. Ah. Nighty night.