Market day – part 2

20 October 2006

The next stop was finally Otavalo – the only place I had actually counted on seeing. Though the itinerary had said that it was not market day, the square was crammed full of stalls, with brightly-coloured fabrics, scarves, hammocks, jewelry, toys and rugs for sale. Apparently if it had been market day, there would have been even more stalls, spilling out into the road in which the minibus parked.

The vendors at the market were so keen for us to buy that they would wrap the scarves around us and we would become embroiled in unwrapping yards of lace with them in order to admire it. Flicking through a few pictures, we would suddenly be presented with another enormous pile (or two) to peruse.

While Suzy haggled over the price of a hammock, I befriended the stall-owner’s daughter. She allowed me to take her photo and I beckoned her over to show her the image on the screen. With “mi llamo Sarah” and a bit of pointing, I discovered that her name was Pamel.

I was absolutely no use at haggling and thus must have been pretty popular with the market vendors. The trouble was mainly that Suzy had taught me “Â¿quanto es?” for “how much is it?”, but I didn’t really know any numbers in Spanish. Thus my transactions often involved me either handing over a note and waiting to see if I would get any change, or staring blankly until the vendor repeated the price in English. At which point I would give exactly what was asked for. Suzy, on the other hand, beat everyone down on price and ended up with a great deal on her hammock, which I think practically involved being paid for taking it off the woman’s hands.

We spent about an hour and a half at the market before heading off for lunch at a restaurant where local roses adorned the tables. I had chicken with garlic sauce, which came with avocado (culinary discovery of the trip, but I’ve no idea what they did with it to make it so yummy), chips and salad. Seeing my plate piled so high, Stewart said they’d pick me up next week. The meal was absolutely delicious and Stewart was impressed with how much of it I put away – as was I!

After lunch we went for a little walk by Cuicocha lake. I hadn’t expected Sofia to be so knowledgeable about the plants as well as the history of the country, but she apparently went on a lot of walks with her family and learned a lot along the way. She showed us poisonous plants and berries whose juice can be used a dye.

We piled back into the minibus, but we still weren’t done for the day…