Otavalo and Quito 8/9/12 - 8/11/12

Perhaps we can provide a quick guide on getting from Popayan, Colombia to Otavalo, Ecuador and show you what a travel day is like for us.

We woke up early at 5:30 AM to get out of the hostel and to the bus terminal.  Took a bus for about 8 1/2 hours to Ipiales where we took a short break to walk around and look at a church for an hour or so, then took a cab to the border.  Cab dropped us off past Colombia Immigration Office, and we walked across the border to Ecuador.  Once we realized we had no exit stamp from Colombia (actually we didn't realize it, the ladies in the Ecuador Immigration Office informed us ;-) ) and that we were in the wrong country, we back tracked to the Colombia side, got the stamp, and then proceeded through Ecuador Immigration.  Oops. 

From there, we took a cab to the bus station and hopped on a bus and went on to Otavalo which took us about 3 hours.  We were dropped off along the highway and told/pointed which direction to walk to get to town.  A guy we were traveling with from Popayan insisted on walking to town, versus taking a cab, and we obliged, thus roaming the town at 10:00 at night for about 45 mins with all our bags on before finally finding a not so great hostel.

While in Otavalo, we moved hostels, took a walk through town, and headed out to a hike that lead us to some waterfalls.

Otavalo is best known for it's Saturday market, a very huge event.  Apparently it is the largest indigenous market in South America.   So we stuck around to go to it Saturday morning before heading to Quito to organize the rest of our time in Ecuador.  The market was crazy.  It took up all of the town's main plaza and all the streets around it for a few blocks. The stalls varied from the typical Ecuadorian clothes for the women, jewelry- lots of beads, warm sweaters, hats, beanies, gloves, etc, and there was a section of the market with fresh fruits, veggies, breads, and meats (including chickens running around).

Typical dress of blouses and skirts for Ecuador women

Kristin was in heaven!  That was until Matt reminded her she had to carry anything she bought AND would have to get rid of something else in the bag to make room for it.  All of a sudden the shopping became less fun.  Nonetheless, the market was full of all kinds of warm clothes for the mountains so Kristin decided she needed a warm beanie for the cooler countries and an alpaca hoodie (she gets cold easily).  In case you were wondering what an alpaca looks like ;-).

We have no reviews of hostels due to them not being worthy.  Part of our intention with providing hostel reviews is so that anybody strolling through these same places might have something to go off for accomodation and price.  Each place we stayed at in Otavalo was $5 and $4 a person for three of us sharing a room.  Other than that info, each place wasn't all that great.

That being said, in Quito we went to the Secret Garden hostel.  By far the best dorm bed we have stayed in. Super comfortable mattresses and blankets.  It was about $10 each, but well worth it.  The roof top terrace was another highlight of the hostel and was a great place to hang out, meet people, and get loads of info. about where to head next.

To be honest we didn't even want to go to Quito because of what people had told us about it; however, it was nice to stop over before we continued on the next day.  And, because we ended up changing our next destination based on info. from the staff.