Ecuador's Market

Well this past weekend had lots of potential of being fun, until all my plans were canceled. So I was ready for another weekend of sitting at home and taking walks around the block. Friday night I did work on some homework and watched one of my new movies, they have Spanish subtitles so I would count that as my Spanish practice for the day. Late Friday night I decided to head out to Otavalo with some of the SNC girls.

Otavalo is a huge market in Ecuador about two hours north of Quito. I woke up at 7am Saturday morning and headed out the door at about 7:45am to meet the girls at the bus station at 8am. Before I left Ani had woke up and asked me in surprise why I was up so early, she's gotten used to me sleeping in until 10am on the weekends. What can I say? I like my sleep.

Once we were all gathered we headed off to some buses not really knowing how to get there. After asking a few small questions and 2 hours later, we made it! All of us were extremely proud that we mad it without much direction and NO Ecuadorean guides to help us. After getting a snack and finding/walking to the street market the shopping began. I've missed shopping so much.

Before we came to the market I had some things in my head that I needed to buy before I left Ecuador and the first thing on my list was an Ecuadorean jersey. Of course the first booth we saw was for the exact jersey I wanted, we tried some on and then the bartering began. The shirts started off at $18 each! We were not about to get gringo-d and pay that price. After the man continued not to lower his price to $10, which is what we would pay, we started to walk away. Quickly the man knew he was loosing a good deal and lowered his price to $10, after all we were going to buy five of the jerseys. So the first battle had been won.

The rest of the day continued like this, asking the price, lowering it, and back and forth. The things we got good deals on we bought and other things we had to walk away from. A few times the booth owners would come find us down the street a bit and try to re-haggle the price. Most of the times we said we'd be back, but really wouldn't be, today anyways. After about two hours of walking and shopping we found the cutest little lunch place and had some amazing quesadillas. After lunch, most of the booths had the same things and we had seen enough.

We walked back to the bus station and headed home. On the bus ride I mentally made a list of all the things I still wanted for myself and of something gifts I still needed to get. The day was great and I got some awesome deals on the things I bought. All day I spent about $40, including the stuff from the market, lunch, and the bus rides. Not bad at all.