We were travelling from Quito, Ecuador’s capital, and heading across the border into Colombia. We decided to break the journey up with a stopover in Ecuador’s northern highlands and the small town of Otavalo was our choice. Otavalo is famous for its indigenous market, which dates back to pre-Inca times and is now the largest of its kind in the whole of South America. We were initially concerned that the whole town would be like one giant theatre production, where stone faced locals dress up for hordes of tourists to shamelessly flog them tacky reproduction handicrafts at rip off prices, but we were very wrong…so wrong in fact we ended up extending our stay in Ecuador by several days so we could discover more about the friendly and culturally rich Otavalenos (people from Otavalo) with their beautiful hand crafted products, and also to explore the rolling hills just a stones throw from the town.
Quilatoa crater lake
29 Jan
A clapped out old bus with rattling windows, faded velour seats and a never ending soundtrack of Andean pan pipes dropped us off in the small settlement of Quilatoa. The indigenous farming village didn’t look like much, just a cluster of basic brick and tin roof homes, but we’d learnt that this was the access point to one of Ecuador’s most spectacular sights – the unbelievably beautiful volcanic crater lake, Quilatoa.
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