Guniea Pig for sale

Road to Otavalo

After the heat in Galapagos we were ready for the Andean highlands north of Quito and decided to visit Otavalo which is home to the largest indigenous (native) market in South America. The bus ride to the town of Otavalo is 2 hours long and costs $2.50. Our plan was to take the public bus but when the taxi driver offered to drive us there in his comfortable van where we would not have to cart our luggage to the bus station –it was an offer that we could not refuse. I think we are getting lazy after so much traveling.
The Andean Highlands is covered in Volcanoes and volcanic lakes. This is the lovely Laguna San Pedro with volcano in the background where we stopped on our way to Otavalo.

The road to Otavalo is the world famous Pan Americana which extends from Alaska to the tip of Argentina, or so I am told. The road was amazing, it was 3 lanes in both directions and newly paved. The roads in Ecuador are fantastic, and in better condition than the USA, New Zealand and Germany. This emerging nation is beating us at our game. So we crossed the equator in our taxi on a comfortable road. We did not notice anything special, when crossing the equator and the car did not do any kind of shaking or turning.

Roses in Ecuador

In Cayambe, near the equator they grow most of the roses which are sold in the USA. This area has eternal spring and supposedly because of the location on the equator the roses will grow straight. 

We passed miles and miles of green houses with roses. They sell for 2$ for 25 roses and are beautiful. There is  a down side to all of this beauty. They are grown using substances that are banned in the USA and Europe and the workers at the plantations are  subjected to this poison - miscarriages, cancer and birth defects are common. Some fair trade and or organic roses are grown so make sure your next bouquet is of the "fair" kind. 

Rose Cottage – Hungry dogs and Shepherd Pie

Our Lonely Planet guidebook suggested the Rose Cottages for budget accommodations with views of 4 volcanoes some 3 km outside of town.

View of the snow covered volcano Cayambe from Rose Cottage

 cottages are scattered between beautiful rose gardens

The cottages are home to 3 very skinny dogs, a few sheep and a llama. The dogs were skin and bones when we arrived so we gave them our breakfast every day. It seems to be common knowledge in Ecuador that Gringos only eat scrambled eggs. Every day, todo dias… after 6 weeks in South America I cannot even look at eggs anymore. This is good for the dogs as they get our breakfast.

Take a stick with you

There are lots of hikes right from the hostel so we decided to walk to the Toxapamba Waterfalls. The dogs decided to join us. This was great for us because other dogs in the neighborhood are not interested in providing tourists with a warm welcome and the hotel staff warned us to take a stick with us to frighten the dogs off. 

None on the staff spoke English so it took lots of gestilating and pointing at dogs before we got the point. All in all, we had a lot of opportunity to practice our Spanish and our skills at charades! Having the dogs along allowed us to pass through a farm yard where two very unfriendly dogs charged us –b ut good for us they were more interested in chasing the other dogs and we had time to get out of there fast.

Uli practicing looking mean for the robbers

Otavalo market

Where can you buy live Guinea pigs, cows and alpaca wool blankets? Right, Otavalo market. This is a huge market. The animal market was very fascinating and even though this was meant to be a major tourist attraction, there were no other tourists around.

Taking the pigs to market on the leash. They are better behaved than my dog on the leash

Cuy, or Guinea pig is very popular eating here and many people were selling them

Mostly bulls for sale! Not steers.

We did not enter the bovine section of the market. Most of these animals are bulls and are dangerous, though no one else seems to think so.

Many indios wear their traditional dress, especially the women. They wear long skirts, lovely embroidered blouses, golden beads and a nice big hat.

Unfortunately, I forgot my close up lens in California and was not able to take many pictures of the indios as I did not want to be rude.

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Baby on board! Most babies are carried. No strollers in sight

These members of a special tribe with a different outfit can be seen quite often

Otavalo is a success story for the indios. This is one of the only cities in Ecuador where they are not dirt poor. They are able to get micro-credit and start their own small businesses weaving or making jewelry.

Traditional blouses with hand embroidered flowers. Unfortunately, not available in my size.

Among traditional handicrafts you also find apache head dress and navajo dream catchers, which are distinctly north american indian.

As always, at a market you can bargain for a good price. This is a challenge in Spanish but I got pretty good at it and bought some very nice things to bring back home.

Otavalo is also home to some of the best musicians in the Andes but we did not see any! Anyone who has walked down the Kaufingerstraße in Munich knows they are all in Germany. We had to settle for a CD of local music.

Street food – better than tourist food

Our hotel restaurant served shepherd pie, spaghetti and chili con carne. This seems to be the result of a globalized, international cuisine. However, in the market, they were selling very tasty looking food but up until now we avoided eating street food. In Otavalo, we finally caved in and had some great food: roast pig, salad, beans and some fish. It was great and we did not get sick.

Popcorn is added to soups and other foods! Yumm!

We even got potato dumplings, Kraut and Schweinebraten! 

Laguna Cuicocha – Crater Lake at 3000m

As you probably know, Uli and I are enthusiastic hikers. The Laguna Cuicocha was recommended to us by the hotel and it was a good thing we could not find our guide book. The guide book warned of robberies on the trail but we were blissfully unaware and only met very nice people while hiking the 5 hours around the lake. In addition, Uli did not shave very often so that he would look scary.

The lake was and still is a sacred place. We paced by the „offerings site“ quickly!

This lake is called – „guniea pig lake“ because of the two islands in the middle. They are meant to look like Guinea pigs. This motivated us to finally try the guniea pig or „cuy“ (as the south Americans call it) at the  lake restaurant.

have you noticed? All the pictures of me are with food!

It is served deep fried with head and feet… and what looked like the brains. To quote a friend from New Zealand „it tasted like bad Kentucky Fried Chicken". Vegetarians can even eat it, because it has hardly any meat on it.

Holy llama and Holy Oly

Last but not least, a picture of the llama at rose cottage and Uli relaxing in a hammock. There are hammocks all over south america. It is hard for Uli and I to get in and out of them. Maybe the people here are more flexible?

LLama at the Rose cottage

"Hasta Luego" from the Andean  Highlands of Ecuador!