Otavalo - Shopping Therapy for the Craft Obsessed

This photograph was my first impression of Otavalo. It elevated my expectations considerably. I was not dissapointed. Otavalo is beautiful, colorful, clean, and safe. There is very little violent crime in Ecuador but theft can be a problem so don't let your guard down just because you are on vacation. Keep a close eye on your belongings. At first the natives scolded me about my camera or purse so I got careful pretty quickly.

Every corner of the market in Plaza de Ponchos is crammed with color, interesting designs, and crafts created with skill and heart. Prices tend to float so be prepared to bargain. Above all smile, it warms your heart and your vendor's heart and seems to make the prices get better.

The Plaza de Ponchos is known as a textile market but there are a perfusion of arts and crafts on display, as well. Make no mistake, there are plenty of textiles on sale here but you will also find clothing, handcarved wooden utincils, jewelry, art, decorative carvings, toys, tourist novelties, etc., etc, etc. in fact, you will find yourself hip deep in almost every king of handmade merchandise.

The Plaza de Ponchos seems to host a sizable market every day of the week but on Saturdays the largest indigenous craft market in South America is thronged with sellers and buyers.

There is also a Saturday animal market, and while the Plaza de Ponchos provides plenty of produce there is a produce market in the Plaza 24 de Mayo that specalizes in produce, housewears, and apperal.

Textile if every imaginable kind are on display, but it was the hats that caught my eye first. Hats of every conciveable color, shape and size. Sweaters, scarves, ponchos, gloves, mittens and more are for sale in this extensive market.

Fine art, jewelry, fabolous gold lined glass beads, masks, engraved gourds, hand painted wooden platters ... the list goes on and on.

Comfey shoes, a hat to keep the sun off, and your camera are all you need to make this a one of a kind day. A few dollars in your pocket doesn't hurt.

And all the shopping is made less confusing because the currency in Ecuador is the American dollar. Now isn't that convienient?

We took an tour of the Otavalo area with Luis Guevera, a really nice young native man who spoke good English. During the tour he talked a lot about the daily life of the natives. He told us that the blouses like this young woman is wearing cost about $200.00 each. He said his wife makes her own and she can spend up to three months just doing the embroidery on the bodice and sleeves. Most of the Otavalenos women I saw were wearing this style of blouse along with a dark wool skirt that has an underskirt of white wool. This skirt wraps around them and is secured by hand woven belts that match the embroidery on the blouse.

Luis can be reached at his email address foreverguevara@yahoo.com. he is based in Cotacachi and will also show available real estate in the area. I will be putting up photos of some of the places we visited with Luis as time permits.

The beads this lady is wearing are indications of wealth, respect, and status. This lady seems to have a measure of all three. The headwear she is wearing will identify her by locale. Her shawl is a truley multi-purpose item. It can be used to shade her head, to warm her sholders, to carry a child, or to get her purchases home from market.

The poncho these men are wearing is traditional. It is heavy wool, very warm in cold conditions and very nearly waterproof. The gentleman at the top was in the market early while it was chilly, the gentleman lower down was there in the evening when it was quite warm. Throwing the "tails' of the poncho over his shoulders allowed him to cool off a bit.

The people of Ecuador are friendly beyond my expectations. They are willing to take a little extra time with someone who does not speak their language, and are quick to smile if you look even half way friendly.

hre not as many English speaking natives as I had expected to find in Ecuador. But even those who speak no English manage to convey a welcoming attitude.

My husband and I both sport gray hair and less than youthful figures. If anything this encouraged them to be more friendly and helpful.

The statistics I read that placed Ecuador above the United States in safety and happiness factors were proven in every city and village we visited.

These beads are interesting and I can only wonder when they were intorduced into Ecuador. And what circuitous journey they have taken to become a status symbol among the Otavalians. They are blown glass lined with 22K gold. They were made in Checkoslovakia in the region now known as Slovenia. During the war that led to the division of Cehczslovakia many bead factories that had been producing such items were burned or bombed out. The facilities and the equipment was far too expensive to replace so many styles of Czech glass beads are now becoming scarce. Could this style of beads be among the victims?

I bought several strands and sizes of these beads while we were in Otavalo. When I got home I made necklaces using red coral, malachite, garnet, amethyst, turquoise, lapis lazuli, amber and pearls. The beads looked just like solid high karat gold when strung. The necklaces proved to be a good seller for me back in the States and I hope to purchase more of these when I return to Ecuador.

This lady brought this bundle with her on her back from God only knows where. By the time we circled back to her booth she was doing a brisk business.

We often saw bundles like this being stuffed into the cargo compartment of a bus or the bed of a pickup truck in outlying villages.

Many Otavalenos have mechanical looms in their homes and produce fabrics as a cottage industry. We saw looms in these home workshops that had once seen service in weaving mills in the United States.

Many homes that hosted mechanical looms had hand looms as well. One gentleman showed us the backstrap of his hand operated loom and proudly informed us that it was over two hundred years old.

The variety, quality and freshness of the produce in Ecuador made quick meals easy and nutritious. The citys and villages are pedesterian friendly. We combined healthy food with frequent strolls to improve our health substantialy.

What a marvelous depiciton of the sun. The arts and crafts of the Ecuador indigenous people catches the eye at every turn. The homoginized world of bland and uninspiring design of the U. S. pales in comparison. This was the painting that I really wanted to bring home but my goal is to have a place in Ecuador not to bring Ecuador home with me.

There are fruits and vegetables in Ecuador that I have never seen before. We got around to trying some of them but I don't believe we even scratched the surface. Since the focus of our upcoming trip is health we are going to make it a point to try as many of the unfamiliar fruits and vegetables as we can.

Eating out involves potatoes at almost every meal, mostly boiled or fried. Soup always seems to be on the menu and is uniformly delicious. Pizza is everywhere, and chicken ranks high as a fast food. KFC serves the expected fried chicken but suprised me with a wonderful offering of steaming lentils and rice with bananna fritters.

 By around 11:00 AM many of the vendors were starting to get a bit run down. Many had begun their journey to the market as early as 3:00 AM. Putting a display together is an hour or more of pretty intensive work, so by 11:00 AM they have done a days work and still have hours to go. We caught more than one napping vendor and tried to wake as few as possible. I'll say one thing for these people, they wake up smiling.

The colorful and fanciful scenes of indigenious scenes are painted on sheepskin. The variety of scenes was quite impressive. The same colors carried over nicely to small wooden crosses, picture frames, trays and platters.

The pictures seemed to start at $5.00 and the wooden trays, like the one above, at about $15.00. 

The ancient pottery is beautiful and superbly designed. If you don't take a walk through at least one museum with a display of ancient pottery you will miss some of the charm and grace of south America. The museum owned by one of the banks in Bahia had a stunning collection that ate right through the battery life of my camera. Each pot seemed to be more intriguing than the last.

 I am no spring chicken. All my life I have heard people with a range of talents and abilities called a one man band. This is the first one I have ever actually seen.

There are so many kinds of locally crafted musical instruments in the market that it is mind boggling.

We watched one of the local musicians and instrument makers whip up a tapered flute like the ones above in about five minutes from a pile of reeds and a couple of balls of colored string. He played for us when he was done. Sounded good to me.

He said that he would be confident enough of the quality of the instrument to take it into a recording studio and play it for one of his CDs. I purchased two of his Cds (not being a musician myself) and have played them over to keep the longing for a return trip alive.

It was getting late and traffic had slowed down but it didn't seem to dampen the spirits of the vendors. They always seemed to be smiling and the sound of their laughter drifted throughout the market. The smiles and laughter would lift the spirits of anyone not determined to be miserable.

 We saw these bamboo lights in use in a number of places.

The Coco Bongo in Bahia made them look particularly appealing. I am going to have to use some packing ingunity to get one home but I will probably succeed.

I am by no means a great cook, but the produce, grains, and legumes made my hands itch to cook. I can't wait to have a kitchen at my disposal in the proximity of the market. It should make for some successes and probably a few culinary disasters.

The strawberries tasted like they did when I was a kid. A dollars worth got us through breakfast the next morning, a noon snack and a dessert the next evening. Try that for a dollar in the States!

I almost passed up the coconut milk fresh from the shell. I am really glad I didn't. This man used a machete with nerve wrecking abandon.

My husband and son both love motorcycles so he was interested in the availbility and pricing. Most motorcycles we saw for sale were under 200cc, mostly made in China, and relatively expensive for the questionable quality. But they were for sale everywhere, furniture stores, car dealerships, appliance shops, and even grocery stores. It was not unusual to see three adults and a child on the back of one of these little bikes.

Restaurants and bars will keep you busy after dark. Add to that the passion for lights and the safety of the streets and an evening stroll is almost mandatory. As the day winds down young people stroll the streets full of laughter and warm hellos.

And ambered lights bring a sense of timelessness and romance.

 The street lights alone are reason enough to take an evening stroll, as are the churches and fountains that are bathed in colored lights. The effect makes the streets feel like a fantasy world. Add to that the mild evenings, well, you just can't stay indoors!

Smiles were constant and prevelant. We never heard a voice raised in anger. We felt very safe on the streets even at night. I am sure there are places you would not want to walk at night but we didn't stumble on to any of them.

I read some stastics before we began our trip that showed Ecuador to be much safer than the United States. I was skeptical but now I believe it.

The Culto Grande is the festival of St. Ann. It was instituted by the Spanish colonials to coincide with the native festival of the “great mother” also known as Jatun Mama. Its purpose is to invoke the gods to fertilize the earth at the beginning of the rainy season. In short, it is the celebration of the fall equinox. Notice the similarity of the headdress on the centeral figure. It corresponds to the design of one of the street lights shown above.

This mural was on the wall in our hotel. We stayed at Hotel El Indio Inn. In 2009 we paid $40.00 a night. The accomadations were clean and the staff managed to scrape up someone who spoke English everytime we had a question. They have a very nice dining room just off the lobby. I found a reciept for two cappucinos, peaches and cream and a banana split. The grand total was under $10.00.

Scroll past comments for a list of links to other hubs on Ecuador.

See my other hubs at http://hubpages.com/hub/Healing-in-Ecuador to see the lovely town of Baños.

You can find my hub page on Vilacabamba at http://hubpages.com/hub/Vilcabamba .

Go to http://hubpages.com/hub/Bahia-de-Caraquez for a look at Bahia de Caraquez, a beautiful and peaceful (except for the parades) beach city. To see some interesting talismans I found in Bahia go to http://hubpages.com/hub/Ecuador-Folklore

For a look at Cotacachi and the outling area see http://hubpages.com/hub/Ecotour-Otavalo-and-Cotacachi.

And my favorite http://hubpages.com/hub/Otavalo-Shopping-Therapy-for-the-Craft-Obsessed. Here you will find an astonishing range of native crafts.

See my other hubs at http://hubpages.com/hub/Healing-in-Ecuador to see the lovely town of Baños.

You can find my hub page on Vilacabamba at http://hubpages.com/hub/Vilcabamba .

Go to http://hubpages.com/hub/Bahia-de-Caraquez for a look at Bahia de Caraquez, a beautiful and peaceful (except for the parades) beach city. To see some interesting talismans I found in Bahia go to http://hubpages.com/hub/Ecuador-Folklore

For a look at Cotacachi and the outling area see http://hubpages.com/hub/Ecotour-Otavalo-and-Cotacachi.

And my favorite http://hubpages.com/hub/Otavalo-Shopping-Therapy-for-the-Craft-Obsessed. Here you will find an astonishing range of native crafts.