Naps between adventures

This weekend has been kind of like a giant nap between two exciting weekends. I’ve actually been meaning (and failing) to write for a week. Now it’s Sunday, I’ve had a splendidly lazy weekend, and I’m finally writing about my adventures from last weekend and getting ready for an exciting next weekend.

What I woke up to from my nap!

Last Saturday I woke up at 6:30am to meet my Kalamazoo group at a private bus at 7am. After all getting comfortable in the bus, we started to make our way to Otavalo, an indigenous city about two hours away from Quito. I took a glorious/uncomfortable nap in the bus and woke up as we drove into the city. We soon climbed out of the bus into the strong sun and started our search for the fruit market. We walked through the market, smelling fruit, dust, fish, listening to vendors calling out for you to buy one of their many types of bananas, potatoes, or melons. After leaving the fruit market we went to the infamous “Mercado artesanal” (the artisanal market). Otavalo is known for its high quality weaving and I walked through the market overwhelmed by the ponchos, sweaters, blankets, scarves, jewelry, socks, purses. We all left the market 90min later with our hands full of plastic bags. From the market we went to get a delicious lunch, learned more about the weaving process, watched a man build a fluta and learned about the different types of instruments common in Ecuador and the Andes, had the opportunity to experience and observe a healing ceremony, went to our hostel, ate dinner, and happily curled up in our beds to rest up for Sunday’s adventures.

 

Sunday we woke up bright and early again, ate a huge breakfast, soon left the hostel and headed to a beautiful viewpoint where we could look out over the hills, the lake, trees, homes, and mountains. From there we went to “El Parque Condor,” a park that rehabilitates and cares for many types of birds in Ecuador. At the park, we took fun photos, then spent too much time trying to take a picture of every bird we saw. My favorites were the "Tropical Screech-Owl," a small owl that looks like a grumpy wizard, and the “Andean Condor,” a practically man-sized bird with a wrinkly head. From there we ate a lunch that consisted of two pieces of bread with a slice of cheese in the middle, cookies, bread, and a hardboiled egg, and then visited Cascada Peguche (a beautiful waterfall) where we walked on trails and posed for group photos in front of the waterfall. In case you forgot, waterfalls spray a lot; they splash and send mist flying everywhere. I got really wet. It was beautiful. I bought a single hand-made feather earring. We went to lake Cuicocha, and rode in a somewhat jenky motorboat around the lake. Afterwards we had some free Canelazo, a traditional alcoholic cinnamon drink, minus the alcohol—so basically a cinnamon tea, and then we got back onto the bus for the long ride home. I took a nap again.

waterfall!

boat-ride!