Organic Farm and Otavalo

Earlier in the week, we took a day trip out to an organic farm. Since we were getting back later, we were all expected to bring a sack lunch. The day before, Gladys asked if I would like a hot dog or a hamburger for lunch. Caught me a little off guard but whatever, it was nice of her to make my lunch everyday in the first place so we decided on a hotdog. The next day I went to breakfast and to my surprise, I had a hotdog waiting for me for breakfast as well as one already in my lunch. And a hotdog here means the dog and bun and then mayonnaise, ketchup, and crumbled potato chips on top—not exactly appealing at 7am. I ended up just packing it up with my lunch, which was a really good idea since I got pretty carsick on the way to the farm and it probably could have been worse with a hotdog sitting in my stomach. The farm was interesting, still trying to figure out how it relates to anything, but I learned a bit about the whole process so that was cool.

On Friday, Becca, Estelle, and I took advantage of the weekend in Quito and headed out to Otavalo. Otavalo is about a 2 hour bus ride away and it’s a medium-sized town that is famous for its Saturday morning open-air market. We got their Friday night to scope things out and then headed to the market at 7am the next morning. And we actually didn’t do too terrible at bartering, despite the whole aspect of having to do it in Spanish. So I am catching up on my Christmas shopping…hope the fam likes the gifts! But the market was really cool and basically consumed the town center, with streets shut down and constant people roaming around. There was also a livestock market and I have never seen so many pigs on leashes before…I wasn’t a huge fan of that side of the market. There was also an indoor section where you could purchase freshly cooked meals and other food items—this part kinda reminded me of Pike Place Market in Seattle, except I couldn’t recognize half the food that was being sold or understand half of what people were saying. We left Otovalo around 2 so we could make it back to Quito to watch the big soccer game- Ecuador vs Uruguay—determining if Ecuador will play in the World Cup. I ended up watching the game with my homestay mother, sister, grandmother, and then the sister’s boyfriend, a niece and her boyfriend. It was fun to watch with people who were so passionate about Ecuador soccer and when they scored, everyone went crazy screaming and clapping. Then it was pretty disheartening when Uruguay scored within a minute and then won the game.

One more week in Quito and then off to the Galápagos on Tuesday!