Our first week in Ecuador - Quito and Otavalo

Hola! Unfortunately the computer is giving us strife so we can´t load photos directly to the blog, but if you follow the link to the right (to ¨our on-line photos¨), and look under ¨Quito and Otavalo¨ you can see the matching photos for the following entry (sorry!) :

So we made it safe and sound to Ecuador and have been enjoying ourselves mostly in Quito, the capital. We spent our first week doing Spanish school for 4 hours each morning. After six intense days, however, we were exhausted and so headed north (crossed over the equator) to spend a relaxing weekend in Otavalo, a small town between two extinct volcanos and renowned for its Saturday markets. We stayed in a very chilled out hostal with a garden and hammocks. The garden was also complete with a very sociable resident parrot named ¨Monkey¨and the occasional hummingbird.

We started our Saturday very early in the morning at the large animal market. It was a bit of a zoo (no pun intended) with locals milling around inspecting animals, or leading animals, or loading animals in vehicles, or unloading animals. We saw lots of pigs from squealing piglets to massive hairy hogs, many cows and bulls, plus the occasional sheep, goat, horse, or llama. Everything was being led around by a lead rope and pushed, prodded, and felt up (we weren't quite sure what grabbing a bull's balls would tell you about it, but it seemed to be an important part of checking out the animal). It was definitely an interesting experience.

We then headed to the small animal market on the other side of town. Here we were surrounded by chicks, chickens, roosters, ducks, puppies, kittens, bunnies, and lots of guinea pig (coy, as they are called here, are considered a delicacy...yes, that's right, to eat). The rest of our morning was spent in the crafts market, which is a maze of stalls selling all sorts of woven goods, wooden goods, stone art, jewelry, paintings, etc. The market fills a square of the town and spills out down the side streets. The crafts themselves are beautiful, but the Otavalo natives are more interesting to see, particularly in their dress and their skills at carrying things (like babies or huge bundles of goods) on their backs using just a sheet.

One other note of interest from the day was that Ben's lunch soup (consome) contained a chicken's foot, heart, and liver....and he ate all of them. Ick. We leave Quito tomorrow to head to the Galapagos Islands for an eight-day cruise....this will be the most traditional "honeymoon" part of our trip (particularly in the cost!!). We'll try to post again when we return!