Otavalo: The Aftermath of the Market

So the market has come and gone...

It was 12 hours of craziness. It by far exceeded anything we possibly could have imaged in terms of magnitude. It was almost a living entity, spreading out from Plaza de Ponchos in every direction, colours spilling onto the streets, and soon onto the people as more and more people showed up and soon adorned themselves in the wares.

We started the morning at 430am.... heading out around 5ish towards the animal market. We arrived, following a few unhappy sheep to find the crowd growing. We were pretty much the only tourists who had managed to get up that early, and it was quite a sight. Pigs, sheep, cattle, goats, piglets, young cows, one donkey and three horses. The sound of the pigs squeeling, was a little bit unnerving, but you soon realise they pretty much dont want to do anything except eat.

Locals mill about and barter, trade and haggle over prices of the animals. Food stalls are set up for people to eat, and we even saw bannick cooking. Trucks are unloaded and reloaded with squealing animals. We even saw a truck bed full of hog tied sheep.

From there it was on to the crafts market which was spreading and growing rapidly by 8am. By 10am it was in full swing. This market isn´t only for toursits and there are plenty of spots to buy seeds, beans, rope, bags etc.

The colours and the sights were reminiscent of the smaller market the day before, only multiplied by ten. A lot of the stalls repeat themselves in what they offer, but there were also a lot of unique stalls offering pottery and different textiles.

The market started to wind down around 4pm and by 6pm almost all of the hundreds of stalls had disapeared. All that was left was trash from those who had waundered the streets, and even that was quickly disapearing as street sweepers magically appeared....

We had wanted to catch a Cock fight which was supposed to start at six pm. We then asked aroudn when no one was there and were told it was to start at seven pm. ... At seven pm we were told eight or nine..... so itwas no cock fight for us. ...

We have managed to upload a few photos of the premarket day happenings, and will post more of market day on Ofoto in a couple of weeks.

Tomorrow it is on to Quito...