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| Local indigenous hand-woven textiles |
Today's program was slated as "Culture Tour of Otavalo" where we were to get an authentic glimpse into the lives of Otavaleños and their crafts.
After a delicious and leisurely breakfast, we were picked up at the very civilised time of 0800 for the 2 hour drive North East past the equator to the northern hemisphere. We stopped at the Cayambe area to try some bizcochos. Raquel informed us that it was an Ecuadorian biscuit and that the OG came from Cayambe. Dr Google seemed to be of the opinion that many latin American cultures had their own versions. We had our bizcocho dunked in some sort of milk caramel sauce. The biscuits themselves tasted like a dry version of a cross between shortbread and scones. Nice but not sure I'd come back for more.
We drove by rose plantations and greenhouses galore. This was the main rose growing area of Ecuador who also exports roses worldwide. Locals can get 25 roses for USD2.5!
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| What a view to wake up to! Unfortunately because of the clouds there was no beautiful sunrise |
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| I am now somewhat obsessed with all the roses. These are changed EVERY day |
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| In all my years at hotel buffets, I have never seen this. A tea steeper timer! |
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| There were even roses at the juice station |
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| An indication of the sweetness of the staff. The chef had accidentally made pancakes instead of french toast. When we left, the waiter came by and gave us a takeway box of the french toast |
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| Not mountain climbers but cargadors. They are muscle for hire to help people carry their stuff at the markets! |
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| Bizcochos |
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| Our guide just kinda barged into the kitchen....so we followed. These guys make 3000/day and supply the surrounding cafes/restaurants |
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| "cooked twice" in these eucalyptus wood fueled ovens |
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| Second bake |
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| Queso de hoja. Cheese wrapped in banana leaves. We like it! |
After what seemed like forever and multiple elevation changes (down to as low as 1800m and as high as 3200m) as we went over mountains, we finally reached Otavalo. Otavalo is a town inhabited by Otavalo indigenous people and they were easily recognisable by their distinctive attire and long plaited hair (both males and females!). First was a quick stop at a vegetable market, followed by a visit to the Plaza de los Ponchos. Our guide recommended we buy our souvenirs here as prices were likely to be 2-3 times higher anywhere in the country, especially the Galapagos as that was where most tourists go. We took her advice very seriously and bought merchandise. It was actually very pleasant and fun because the people were gentle and full of smiles. There was no shouting and no pushy vendors.
Next up was the workshop of Miguel Andrango, a local artisanal weaver. He has since passed and so his daughter, Luz Maria, was now the boss of the 14 family member strong weaving family. There were very few families who still weave the traditional way. She walked us through the whole process from washing and dying the look to actually watching the creations live. Her grand nephew at aged 10 was still an apprentice having started at age 8. The weavings were intricate and beautiful. We got to feel baby alpaca fur which was SO soft...
From textiles we moved on to music at Taita Gundo, a beautiful space that belongs to the prodigious Lema family. Segundo welcomed us into his home and workshop and gave us a quick demonstration on the craft of traditional bamboo pipes. He was fast!! This was followed by a quick demo of the various indigenous pipes in the Andean region as well as some made in the North American tribes. The one made with jacaranda had a beautiful mellow sound. The one we loved the most was the jingle jangle made with llama hooves clippings and the percussion instrument that was a donkey's jaw.
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| Guagua de pan at the markets, a traditional Ecuadorian sweet bread figures, shaped liked babies or dolls, that are part of the Day of the Deceased holiday. I thought these were cute until I saw other examples on google. Guagua means baby in the local indigenous tongue and is common phrase in Ecuador |
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| The sun was out, the weather was cool, the vendors were friendly and gently spoken. All is all so pleasant! |
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| She was selling roasted corn and lupin beans, an indigenous snack |
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| I may have bought a blue footed booby from this lovely lady. The sisal shoes, black/navy skirt tied with colourful bands and white embroidered shirts are the norm |
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| Home and workshop of Miguel Andrango |
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| The traditional tool to comb the wool after cleaning. They'd have to change the seeds every 1-2 months |
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| Now they used metal brushes |
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| Super soft baby alpaca |
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| The original way to make a yarn |
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| Her grandfather came up with this contraption with the missionaries to speed up the process |
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| Ready for dyeing |
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| Made with dyes sourced from surrounding plants and insects |
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| this one came with a warning as it was a hallucinogen |
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| Wild cherries used for eating and dyeing. Sweet! |
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| This will be a double bed blanket. It will take 6 months to complete |
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| Luz Maria's youngest son Eduardo. No patterns |
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| Nothing is wasted. The agave leave that is used to clean the leave is then used as fibres (sisal) to make shoes and support belts for the weaving |
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| The sisal products |
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| Peguche, the village where Taita Gundo is |
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| Segundo himself demonstrating pipe crafting |
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| He made this in 30 seconds flat...I forget what it is called... |
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| Hoove clippings |
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| One man band |
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| Donkey jaws complete with teeth |
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| Bolivian pipes, made with alternating lengths as it was designed to be played blowing into 2 pipes at a time. Genuis |
It was now 2pm and we were starving. It was difficult to interrupt the local people kindly showing you their craft just to tell our guide that we were hungry so we sucked it up. Unfortunately this was where we had our first food fail. We ate at a lovely hacienda called Hacienda Pinsaqui which has been family owned for generations. However the food was terrible...
We ate as quickly as we could so we could start the long trek back to Quito. We didn't reach the hotel until just after 6pm. We farewelled our driver and guide as tomorrow we'd start our journey to the cloud forest. Raquel was nice but as a guide was only average. It was perhaps unfair to make comparisons as we had amazing guides in Colombia and she didn't cut the mustard in terms of the depth of information. We felt like she never really gave us a good understanding of the "why" of something. Probably just being nitpicky! However we still had a good time!
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