Around Quito

Otavalo

On Tuesday morning we decided to brave the public transport system. This involved going to the rather dodgy bus interchange. It didn't take too long to buy tickets once we actually found the right ticket office (among dozens available). It was nice and cheap, only $2 each for a trip that was supposed to take a couple of hours, and we were soon to find out why...

The bus was actually pretty flash and we were the only two on it to start with, which we found a little amusing. The bus left a little early then drove around the outside of the terminal, and then around town a bit to pick up extra passengers, so the bus was about half full by the time we finally got underway. Three hours later we finally arrived in Otavalo.

The main attraction for this rather out of the way town is it's Indian Market. First up we visited the food market, which was interesting, but didn't offer much that we wanted to buy. We had a quick look round and took a few photos. We then went to the craft market which was pretty quiet and very colourful. We had a quick look around and bought a few souvenirs. We'd decided not to take the guide book with us because all we wanted was the map, and it's pretty big. Michelle got a little stressed cos she wasn't confident she knew exactly where she was all the time. Fortunately we found a map on a wall and after taking a photo of it we then had a portable map. Drama over!

After getting back to Quito later than we'd originally hoped (though it only took two and a half hours to get back) we had a great Mexican meal for less than $20.