Otavalo Market

In America, Ecuador 2001 On  28/04/2001  One comment

About 95 km away from Quito, Otavalo is one of the main open markets in Ecuador. It has been there for hundreds of years, even before the Spanish arrived. It is from the pre-Colombian period, when the indigenous people from the coast came to exchange merchandises with the Andean people. The best day to visit the market is on Saturday, when the biggest merchandises exchange happens. The streets get crowded with people and tents.

Nowadays the market is very popular among the tourists. There is a area of handcraft envisioned towards them. It is really big, I had never seen anything like this. Blocks and blocks full of tents selling bags, sweaters, bracelets, objects in wood, carpets, hats and anything else you could imagine. Everything is very colored and really well done. I wish I could take everything, the problem would be to carry it in the backpack for the next 4 months…
Something that caught my attention in the market was the beauty of the Ecuadorian indigenous women. They were very well dressed, with golden necklaces, white blouses and long skirt… the dressing was the similar to all, everybody looked alike, but it was not tiresome as an uniform, it was pretty to see. I realized that they all dress up to the market day, some to sell other just to walk around. Otavalo market is a round trip that no one should miss!