The Otavalian Market

After Spanish classes finished, we caught the bus, with 3 lads from the Spanish school, to Otavalo. Otavalo is a town about 2 hours north of Quito and it hosts the largest Indigenous market in Ecuador. It sells all sorts of handicrafts and toursty gifts. Not great when your rucksack is almost full anyway. Ste bought a guitar which he has already left on a bus somewhere!!

On our first night, after searching for somewhere open to eat, we stumbled across a resturant owned by a Belgian couple. The food was the best I'd had since arriving in Ecuador - a delicious lasange. The couple were chatting to us after the meal and tring to encourage us to attend a Shamen ceremony the next night. The ceremony entails taking a concoction of Jungle Medicine and "flying" for 15 hours whilst giving recommendations and suggestions. I'm still not sure what you are supposed to be suggesting on. We didn't go in the end but I'm sure it would have been a good experience.

After Otavalo we headed straight for Papa Gayo to do a 2-day horse riding trek. The place was really nice but Ste was really ill so we couldn't go in it. He's ok now but had a miserable few days. They had some ace lamas there so we took some photos of them instead.