When I was planning our inland adventure I stumbled across this little fun fact:

"Despite its modest size, Otavalo hosts the biggest textiles market in Ecuador and one of the most famous in South America...stalls spread out across town, and thousands of locals and visitors mix it up in a festival of buying, selling, and haggling."

Can you imagine Clint's excitement when I read him that....we just had to go! Kudos to Duke again, we had a car to carry all my treasures home from the market.

Otavalo is an hour and a half drive north of Quito. This region, from Quito north to the Colombian border, is the known as the Northern Sierra and West Andean Slopes. Like the Central Sierras, the northern highlands contain spectacular mountain scenery and thriving indigenous communities.

The Otavaleños have an interesting history and are an excellent example of perseverance. After the Spanish Conquest, exploitation of the craftsmen pervaded. They were forced to work in sweatshops in terrible conditions. Even after Ecuador's Independence from Spain the indigenous were equally oppressed, being forced to work in exchange for access to tiny farm plots. In fact, they were not given land and control over their own work until 1964.

Today they are dedicated to making and selling their textiles. Their handicrafts are sold around the world. They are the entrepreneurs of Ecuador's indigenous people. Even though they are a lot more successful and wealthier than most of the other indigenous they still cling to their traditional ways and live simply like the others.

The workmanship is beautiful. The Alpaca sweaters and scarves look and feel just like cashmere. We were fortunate to have been there off-season so it did not feel like "thousands" and we were able to negotiate some good deals. We shopped till we dropped, happy birthday to me

In fact, we were so busy shopping the only picture we took is the first one you see; lunch.

However, the real treasure we found was not at the market; it turned out to be the place we stayed Balcon del Lago, in the Pueblo San Rafael.



San Rafael, ten minutes south of Otavalo, is a very small indigenous village. It overlooks Laguna de San Pablo, a lake that sits at the base of the inactive Volcán Imbabura (15,200 feet).



We stayed in a simple "indigenous" style cabin constructed of handmade bricks with a barrel tile roof that was "insulated" inside with local thatching.



Aside from the absolute charm of the place, the views were stunning. The whole side wall was a picture window that wrapped around the backside of the cabin.



Not only did we get a front row seat of the lake and mountains; twice a day an indigenous woman, who looked to be 100, would walk by either on her way to graze her sheep or on her way home to put them away for the night.



Duke wanted to play with this little guy.



It got quite cold in the evenings; Clint kept us cozy with a fire.



As I have mentioned before, the indigenous live communally. Everyone pitches in and all of the property is shared. The first morning we were there, we were wakened at 4:30 am by the local community leader announcing over the loud speaker that everyone was to meet for the cemetery cleanup. He concluded his announcement with a very nice song.

The property where we stayed is one of the few properties that is privately owned by a non-indigenous family. The indigenous still passed through the property as they came and went about their daily activities just as we were able to walk throughout their community.

Clint and I went on a hike with the owner, Efrain, and his son.



It was a five hour hike up and up and up into the mountain to a waterfall.



At times it felt more like mountain climbing than hiking.



There were beautiful views...



And, a lot of unusual plants and bugs we had never seen before...







These little flowers are called Papa Noelle's Zapatos, Santa Claus' Shoes. Can you see why?



The hike nearly killed us and we couldn't walk by the time we got down but it was worth it, it gave us an opportunity to explore the beauty of the mountain up close.

We have invited our hosts, Monika and Efrain, to visit us on Karma. We hope they take us up on the offer; I think it will be as unique for them to come to the boat as it was for us to visit them in San Rafael.


(Check out the poncho...got at the market in Otavalo)

We left the tranquility of Balcon del Lago ready for a little excitement. Next stop Tena, Ecuador's water-sports capital...