...is in Otavalo, Ecuador, my stop after a couple of nights in Quito. I was very much looking forward to this market as on Saturdays, it features indigenous craftspeople, a food market and a livestock market. It is hard to convey just how big, how colorful, how near overwhelming Saturday market is. Every street and alley, every square, of central Otavalo is filled to within an inch of its life by foods of every description, weavings, tapestries, pottery, visual art, clothing, et.al. It truly boggles the mind. I had a beautiful sunny day, the equatorial sun just as intense as in Quito but the temperature truly is spring/like. Many, if not most of the vendors are indigenous Quichans, dressed /especially the women and children/ in traditional attire which one never gets tired of admiring and always wondering how they manage with so many layers of clothing.
While one section of the market is devoted to produce of infinie variety, prepared food stalls abound frying whole tilapia, simmering chicken and potato stews, roasting whole chickens and other carnes. You simply sit down at a long open table, point to your favorite and it's in front of you in no time, blissfully under a tent to protect you from that sun.
Don't miss this event if you ever get to Ecuador, it's like nothing I've ever seen before.
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