Otavalo

Otavalo is a mainly indigenous American city in the sierra of Ecuador, a few hours north of Quito. Due to a public holiday we had an extended weekend and decided to visit. We have been before, but it is a charming city, and worth repeat visits, and also it is the best place in Ecuador, and probably in South America, to shop for handmade textiles. Many of the villages around Otavalo have their own styles of woven bags, clothing, blankets etc. Literally cottage industries, the wares are sold on the daily markets in the city. Because you buy direct from the manufacturers, the prices are both fair and low.

Otavalo's main market on Plaza de Ponchos, covered in plastic to keep the rain out

However, we hadn’t banked on the start of the rainy season. Otavalo sits in the shadow of some major volcanoes. One of them Imbabura, has great significance in the local Quechua religion and is personified as ‘papa’. It is said that when it rains, it’s papa urinating. If so, he urinated on us, and everybody else in Otavalo, for most of the weekend. 

An Otavalito reading Condorito. This is the traditional clothing for males in Otavalo.

Two symbols of colonial resistance in Otavalo, Rumiñawi the Inca general who bravely but unsuccessfully fought the Spanish conquistadors, and Simon Bolivar who eventually beat them nearly three hundred years later. 

Plaza Bolivar, Otavalo, when the sun eventually came out, an hour before we left.