South America Trip Day 3 - Otavalo Market

On the third day of the trip, we decided to visit the world famous Otavalo Market near Quito. We were not looking to buy anything specific, but wanted to go and check out the market. The market is supposed to be big on Saturdays, but we were going to be in Mindo Cloud Forest on Saturday, so decided to visit it on a weekday.

Again the most suggested way to visit this market is with a tour (approx. $60 per person), but we decided to do it ourselves because the tours were quite pricey. We started from hostel around 8.30 AM and first headed to Carcelen (another bus terminal in the north of Quito) from where there are direct buses to Otavalo town. We took a feeder bus from Parque El Ejido to Carcelen bus station. As usual, we missed our stop and ended up going couple of stops further than where we wanted to go. So we got down and walked back to the Carcelen bus terminal. Took tickets from the ticket counter for Otavalo for $2.20 per person. $2 is the bus ticket and $.20 is the Carcelen terminal fee.

After couple of hours, we reached Otavalo. The bus took the Pan American Highway and had some very nice views of the Andes. We went to Plaza de Ponchos where the market is set up. As soon as we entered, we could clearly see the colorful choices of the Ecuadorian people. There were so many stalls selling paintings, alpaca wool blankets, scarfs, hats and a lot of different things.

Stuff at the market.

Poonam showing off her new head band.

Want a hat?

One of the most interesting stalls in the market was a guy carving currency coins along the designs/emblems on them. It was pretty cool. We bought a carved Argentinean coin from him. In general, the market had some more interesting things but we didn't have much space in our bags to fit them so we decided to not buy anything else. Also, all the sellers usually quoted a higher value because they know the buyer will try to haggle and lower the prices.

The "coin carver" at work.

The argentinian coin we bought.

We roamed around all of the market appreciating the different things and wanting to buy many. :D
After the market, we had lunch at a Mexican place Tabasco located at one corner of the market. The food here was fine but costly. The restaurant was at the 3rd floor of a building and we got an aerial view of the market from there. It gave a good view of the size of the market.

View of the market from the mexican restaurant.

After lunch we headed off to the bus terminal to catch a bus to San Pablo Lake. The lake is the largest lake of Ecuador and has the Imbabura volcano in the background. The bus driver dropped us a little distance away from the lake and we had to walk up to the lake.

At San Pablo lake w/ Imbabura volcano in the background.

After spending some time at the lake taking pictures, we took another bus back to Otavalo. From Otavalo, we took a bus to Carcelen and from there to Ofelia. From Ofelia, yet another bus to the hostel. Ended up reaching quite late at the hostel around 9.30 PM. At the end of the day, we had managed to visit Otavalo and San Pablo lake at a much lower cost than the tour options and we also got to learn more about the local transportation system.