My weekend in Otavalo

I'm actually going to start this post a bit before our trip to Otavalo. Friday evening I went with my brother Sebastian and his friend Christian to el cine (the movies) to see Tron in 3D in Spanish. I understood most of what was going on and the special effects were super chevere. The whole movie experience was different though. The lines to get tickets took forever. Then, our tickets said 8:45 so we had to wait outside the theater (not the building, just the theater) until they opened the doors at 8:45. Weird. Anyway, it was really cool.

On Saturday, all the BCA students met at Rio Coca at 7:30 AM to head off on our grand adventure to Otavalo. We rented a bus so it was nice to have just BCA people on the bus. We drove for about an hour and then stopped on a hill where we could see a rock formation that sits right on the equator. After we were done taking too many pictures, we continued on to las piramides de cochesqui. These pyramids aren't like the Egyptian ones. They are flat on top and are covered in grass and were built by a pre-Incan community. One of the pyramids had an excavated lunar and solar calender as well. The hike around the site was quite tiring because we were at an even higher altitude than we are in Quito. When we were done with the tour, we hung around and fed the llamas. They keep llamas there as natural lawn mowers and there's a guy who knows how to whistle to get them to come. It was pretty intimidating to see a herd of llamas running over the hill. Daniel brought salt so we all got to feed them. Some of them are pretty greedy. As far as I know, no one was spit on. When we were done there, we visited the only monument in Ecuador dedicated to the equator. They have a tall cylindrical metal centerpiece that has a mirror on the bottom. At 12:00 on the equinoxes, the sun shines directly over the cylinder so the reflection off the mirror goes straight back up. And something I learned was that when you're at the equator, you can see all of the constellations all the time. Sweet! Off course we had to take several pictures there as well because being in both hemispheres at the same time is awesome. Finally we were on our way to the market of Otavalo. And what a market it is. So much artistry and colors and food and bargains! Daniel told us we should never really have to pay the first price they offer, so we had to learn how to bargain. I was actually a lot better at it than I thought I would be. I'm going to go back to the US though and not want to pay full price for anything. Haha. I bought lots of cool things for myself and lots of gifts for some people back in the states. I definitely want to go back though, because there was so much more I wanted to buy. It was really cool though to walk around and see things that Greg brought home for us. It makes it a little harder for me to buy presents, too because I want to be original. Thanks, Gregorio. Haha. Jk. Once we were shopped out, we went back to our hostal in Otavalo and chilled until supper. We went out to a pizzeria and they had live indigenous music during our meal. Those guys were quite talented! Went back to the hostal and went to bed.

At the pyramids:

The llamas:

Me at the equator:

Breakfast at the hostal at 7:30. On the bus by 8:45. We headed off to las cascadas de Peguche (waterfalls). We took a short hike which included a short rock climbing experience to get to the waterfall. Once we got to the top of the water fall, we had the opportunity to get in and head farther upstream to another waterfall about 20 yards further away. The current was powerful and the water was pretty cold, but with determination and a lot of teamwork we made it to the waterfall. Once in a lifetime opportunity. Totally worth getting wet for. We hiked back down, changed, and then headed off to a Condor Rehabilitation Park. It was raining, but we got to see lots of varieties of condors (i.e. hawks and owls and such). The owl who played Hedwig in Harry Potter is a resident of this park! Que chevere! Our last stop before lunch was the house of some people who make musical instruments. They weren't home, but our tour guide who came with us who works at the hostal we were staying at knew enough to teach us about the instruments. Unfortunately he didn't really know how to play them. Haha. Oh well. Then we all got to try them out. I'm not very good at playing them either. Then we headed back to the hostal for a traditional Ecuadorian meal of llapingachos, empanadas con banana inside, carne, and verduras. Then we were off again to the house of an old indigenous couple that takes alpaca wool and makes their own yarn with it to make scarves and sweaters and blankets. It seemed like very intensive work. I think they said a scarf takes them 3 weeks to make. All by hand. And a poncho takes two months. Incredible. In case you couldn't tell, BCA likes to jam pack our field trips with activities, so once again we were off to a small leather market where we stopped for about 20 minutes. There were lots of goods like we saw in Otavalo, but there were also lots of leather purses, wallets, coin pouches, bracelets, and such. More bargaining. Finally we went to a lake that had formed after a volcanic eruption. El Lago M-something. My memory isn't that great. The scenery was awesome, though! There's a large island in the middle of the lake and BCA used to have picnics there until someone (not from BCA) forgot to put out their fire and burned the whole island. Nobody is allowed over there anymore. At 5:15 we packed up the bus and headed back to Quito. Got home around 8:00, unpacked, shared my pictures with my family, and headed to bed. It was a fun, but exhausting weekend.

Whew,
Lizzie

La cascadas de Peguche:

Hedwig:

El Lago M-something: