Otovalo

A mere 1000-m climb put us in Otovalo for afternoon coffee (back to instant unfortunately). Funny how perspectives change. A 1000-m climb just seems like part of the drill now. It’s nice to be back in the highlands, but I think Amy could use more heat (she loves the heat of the valley-bottoms). At 2550 m, Otovalo has warmish days and cool nights. A perfect climate in a way: no heating, no cooling required. During the day you open the windows to let the breeze in, at night you shut them to keep the heat in – 365 days of the year. With a population of 40,000 Otovalo has that nice small-town vibe and you can walk everywhere, but is big enough to have everything you need. Lots of great smelling pananderias (bakeries), restaurants, and shops, and of course, the market.

Since anyone can remember, Otovalo has hosted one of the most important markets in the Andes. The indigena (local indigenous people) come down from all over and layout a schwack of hand-made traditional goods from leather belts to ponchos to fine fabrics – all dressed in their traditional clothing. Otovalenos are particularly known for their textiles and weaving skills. It’s Disney Land for shoppers. Amy is like a kid in a candy store and can’t get enough of it (apparently our daily budget does not include market items). I’ve had enough after a few minutes. In fact, she’s there right now while I write this – I had to go, it was beer:30.

As eluded to last post, our plan is to stay put for about a week, which we predict will not be a hardship. After checking on a few places we found what could be the perfect base, and is the nicest place we have stayed at so far: Hotel Riviera-Sucre (things just keep getting
better!). In keeping with the theme we have seen thus far, it’s an old colonial home that has been converted into a hotel/hostel – complete with high ceilings, creaky wood floors, and endless nooks (one sitting space even has a fireplace). Our room is palatial, off on its own wing, opens up to a courtyard garden area, and, surely has the single hottest shower in South America (any traveller knows what that’s worth). It might be hard to pry ourselves away from here.

One of our bigger goals for this little adventure we’re on, is to learn Spanish. From all accounts, Ecuador is one of the better places to take Spanish lessons. So, today was day 1 of 5 of escuela de espanol. We are taking the plunge and have signed up for 20 hrs of 1-on-1 lessons at a local spanish school; 4 hrs a day for 5 days (with this weekend off so we [i.e., Amy] can go to the market which goes ballistic on weekends). $6.50 an hour, hard to beat that.


 
 
Speaking of money, an interesting factoid is that Ecuador uses the U.S. dollar (i.e., exact same cash, ATMs spit out U.S. green backs). Back in the late 90s the Ecuadorian economy was imploding along with its old currency (the sucre). In 2000 they made the switch to U.S. currency to stabilize things, et voila, everything here is in U.S. dollars and cents. The big difference, obviously, is that everything is about 1/5^th of the cost, which is nice! Taking advantage of the 80%-off sale, we had our teeth cleaned yesterday (no, not by monkeys, by a real dentist) for the outrageous price of $16. At those prices, who needs a health care plan?
 
So a week of spanish lessons, sifting through the market, getting used to the new food (so far less rice, more corn), and trying to take photos of the locals without offending them. So far our impressions of Ecuador are good: much quieter, people seem almost shy, and, way cheaper than Colombia.  Should be a fun week. More soon.