Otavalo

Last weekend I went to a town called Otavalo with 3 other people from the school - Kim, Stephen, and Dan.  Otavalo is about 2 hours away by bus from Quito.  We left at 7am on Saturday morning, which was pretty tough since most of us went out the night before.  Every Saturday, Otavalo has a huge market.  The indigenous people of the town sell all sorts of things like scarfs, ponchos, bracelets, jewelry, blankets, purses, etc.  There was also a food market that sold fruits and vegetables.  There is also an animal market on Saturdays but we missed that.

    

      

After the market we did a hike to La Cascada Peguche, or the Peguche Falls.  It was excellent, as most waterfalls are.  Who doesn´t like waterfalls?

 

Then about 20 minutes away is Lake Cuicocha, a crater lake.  We had heard about a hostal that was right on the lake, Hostal Mirador.   We had to do a little hike up to the hostal, but it was well worth it.  They had the best view.  And the rooms even had a fireplace.  We only paid $12 for the night.  The hostal had a restaurant too that had excellent food.  The next day, on Sunday,  we did the hike around the lake.  It took us 5 hours, and it was not easy.  But it was fun and it was definitely good to get some exercise with all the eating I´ve been doing in Ecuador.  It was pretty foggy at the beginning of our hike and we couldn´t see a thing.  But it finally cleared up and it was beautiful.  It was a great weekend.