Embraced by Andies: Weavings and one conquest in Ecuador

After we recovered the shock of leaving Colombia we realized that something new and fun was ahead, Ecuador. We drove straight from the border to a town called Otavalo. The name gave me a cozy feeling of the starry northern sky in the winter. We parked the car along the main road just to clear our heads when a smiling man, Hernan, came to talk to us. He told about his trips around Europe in a van with his band and how after the chinese came and brought down the wholesale prices of the weavings he had to change his business to churros. He introduced his wife and offered us a place to stay at their home. First touch with local people fulfilled our hearts with love.

Hernán with his wife at their front door.

Otavalo is known of the textile market on saturdays, when the weavers and artisans of the villages around gather to sell their artifacts. It is one of the biggest in all South America. The athmosphere was nice and the traditional dresses of the women were beautiful. I was so abashed about the fact that while the young women wore the traditional dresses when most of their husbands and boyfriends wore western style that I didn´t even get one foto. I feel stupid. Almost only the old men wore their traditional outfit. Best of all, the men had a long thick braid! Kids, teens, men, seniors, no matter the age! Well seniors had thinner...

From Otavalo we drove to Laguna Mojanda, up in the mountains. Around there were other smaller lakes too but to get to this one we didn´t need to struggle in the mud. The weather changed so many times during a day, from rainy to foggy to sunny etc. Landscape was beautiful and peaceful. During the day, Sunday, there was people enjoying their day off but when they left and we were left all alone it was complete silence.

The refugio had seen its best days so we slept in the car.

The view from inside the van gave me a similar feeling as sleeping in the sauna hut of Laulusaari, so close to the shoreline. The water was clean and clear so we filled our cistern with it.

As we had decided to conquer the volcano Cotopaxi, this place was good for acclimatization. Well, specially the climbing to the extinct volcano beside the lake, Fuya Fuya, 4290 meters.