The Rosens do Ecuador...Part II

So from the title of this entry, this is part 2 in a little blog mini-series. If you haven’t read up on part one yet, scroll down to get the whole story!

We last left off with Rachel stratling the gear shift and me falling out the door of the public bus from Quito to Otavalo. Let’s just say that after a day of nothing but driving, our level of happiness was about to sky-rocket.

We managed to hail ourselves a cab and arrive at our hotel: La Mirage. This may be the most aptly named hotel I have ever stayed at because I literally could not believe my eyes when we walked into our room.

Keep in mind that I have been living in the 3rd world for more than 4 months now and a set of dresser drawers is enogh to send me over the edge. So when we walked in and saw this…I was pretty much speechless:
Yep…champagne, robes with rose petals…and yes…even rose petals in the toilet bowl!
Were we seriously just jammed in the front of an overcrowded public bus being harassed by a slimy bus driver?? Somehow the rose petals in the toilet made the day from hell disappear.

After a lovely dinner, Rachel and I hit up the town. Now for any of you who have ever gone out on a weekend night (or really any night for that matter) with Rachel or I, you know that if we are put in charge of deciding what to do or where to go, we will 9 times out of 10 choose a karaoke bar. So why should Otavalo be any different??

Yep. That’s right ladies and gentlemen. Rachel and I stumbled into a local karaoke bar and showed off our stuff. We were the ONLY gringos in the place and out of about 5000 song choices, there were about 12 in English.

But we managed to find some oldies but goodies and wow the crowd with our vocal talent. Karaoke runs a bit differently here in Otavalo. Now I think I’ve mentioned before that this place is quite possibly one of the most laid back towns I‘ve ever been to. This is a place where people can’t even be bothered to stand while waiting for the bus but instead lay down at the stop.

Why should karaoke bars be any different? People do not have to get up to sing but instead, they just lazily pass a wireless mic around the bar for people to sing into. It was great…and I think that Rachel definitely garnered some Ecuadorian fans in the process.

After our musical debut, it was to bed. We had an early day at the market!

Now I know I’ve talked about the ridiculously amazing market here in Otavalo but there is another market that I had not yet been to that Rachel was fortunate enough to experience with me for the first time…the Animal Market.

I’m sure some of you out there have visions of a glorified butcher shop or maybe some of you well-traveled readers may envisions crates of chicken feet or pig snouts. Nope. Not in Otavalo. These animals are LIVE!

People come to the market bright and early every Saturday morning with animals in tow, ready to sell, trade or even cook their animals! Clearly, this is one of those “youhad to be there” experiences but it’s not every day that I can say I’ve seen a bag full of guinea pigs, a man wearing a backpack filled with baby lambs or woman carrying countless chickens by their strangely, oversized feet…here are some pictures…
We finished up the Animal Market and headed into the craft market where Rachel and I promptly began to boost the Ecuadorian economy. Somehow by the end of the day, we had walked away with Alpaca scarves, Alpaca sweaters, Alpaca hats, some jewelry that looks awesome now but I’m sure I will wonder what the hell I was thinking when I bought it when I get home…and a carved Ecuadorian band. How can you leave without one of those??
Well at this point, Rachel and I were seriously ready for a nap. But when we got back to the hotel, we discovered the one thing that is even better than a nap…a massage! Yep…we both completely indulged ourselves and had some pretty amazing…and incredibly strange treatments.

Both of our treatments started out basically with a sponge bath after the masseuse basically unrobed us. A bit awkward.

After the sponge bath, we were instructed to get into a thermal bed that was basically like getting into a Domino’s Heat Wave bag. Needless to say, it was hot!

But even with the awkwardness and almost cooking ourselves in our hot packs, it felt amazing.

So after that and another great dinner, we were ready to hit up the town…

We met us with some other volunteers and basically did a little Otavalan bar crawl complete with $16 bottle service (yep…$16 for all of us to drink all night), burning up the dance floor and of course, taking some ridiculous pictures in the process.
But perhaps we hit up Otavalo a bit too hard…because it hit back.

Let’s just say that Rachel got up close and personal with those rose petals in the toilet bowl. (Disclaimer…I was given outright permission to discuss this hangover on this blog…) And when Sam finally arrived in Otavalo mid-Sunday morning, let’s just say he wasn’t rushing to kiss his wife.

Needless to say, our original plans of visiting the hot springs were altered. (Somehow sitting in a local bus for an hour followed by soaking in boiling hot water that smells like rotten eggs didn’t appeal to Rachel at this exact moment)

So we left Rachel to bond further with the porcelain throne and Sam and I hit up the Otavalan market for another round.

It didn’t take us long to look like complete tourists. We got to take some good pictures in the main square while being stared at by locals and Sam bought a Panama hat that I personally think he looks fabulous in but his wife made him throw away as soon as she laid eyes on him (maybe this is why I am not married…).
Sam and I went back to the hotel and found that Rachel had survived the experience and we spent the rest of the evening just lazing around the hotel.

Monday morning and my last day with the Rosens…we were ready to take the town by storm. After a little convincing, I had persuaded Rachel and Sam that there was no need for a tour guide on our day to explore Otavalo. I just kept telling them that tazis are everywhere and so easy to find.

Well, wouldn’t you know that this Monday happened to be the day that the taxis decided to strike??

Yep. Not a single yellow cab in sight.

Ok. Solve the problem. We literally stumbled into a travel agency and I tried to explain to them our problem and all the places we wanted to visit. At this point, I was desperate and would have probably given all of my Alpaca purchases up to this guy for a ride to the “must-sees” of Otavalo.

The guy started explaining this amazing private tour that included everything we wanted to do and more. I was ready to warm up my credit card for the transaction when he informed us that for a 7-hour tour complete with Ecuadorian lunch and private guide would cost us $25 a piece. Um…let me think…DONE!

The day was awesome. The only problem with it was that it went so smoothly that I really don’t have too many funny things to write about…the good days just do not make for good blogging material…

We visited the Magic Tree, a waterfall and I even convinced Sam and Rachel to ride in the back of the pick-up with me.
We also visited an indigenous instrument workshop and an indigenous home to see how they spin yarn. Note the TINY size of this women…keep in mind that Rachel just barely surpasses the 5 foot mark…
After a great lunch, it was off to a beautiful lake. It is a four hour hike around…we took a short cut (aka, when up and down one set of stairs) and called it a hike after about 4 minutes.
I went back to the hotel with them to soak in my last minutes of pure luxury. We ate dinner that wasn’t just rice and potatoes, drank wine and I just tried to squeeze every last minute of being with them as I could.

It was hard to say goodbye but it was so amazing to see Rachel and Sam that I honestly can’t imagine now how I would have gone two more months without seeing them. It was hard to believe that it had been 5 days since our screaming hello hugs in front of the awkward bellhop in Quito. Five equator visiting, boring tour driving, karaoke singing, market shopping, self-indulging, hangover inducing, waterfall visiting and friend reuniting days.

And another five days of traveling with the Rosens I will never forget.

xoxo,
Debra