Otavalo

In the city of Otavalo, indigenous people comprise the majority of the population. 

After riding the bus for two hours, we arrived and spent the day taking in the beautiful

scenery of Ecuador, sampling a deeply-rooted culture at the largest Indian market in Ecuador.  

The COLORS WERE CAPTIVATING, among them, the beautiful handmade crafts, spices, 

baked goods, fruits and vegetables (not found in the U.S.) and attire of the locals.  

At one stand, we met two Argentinian hippies that closely resembled the hippies we

see at the open market on the drag at UT.  (Do hippies dress the same universally?)

I bought a pair of their beautiful handmade earrings for the bargain price $3 which

might have cost $15 in the US.Other places we visited included a giant crater which 

had since turned into a lake alongside inactive volcanoes--the immensity of these sites, 

the giant mountains shrouded in fog, and the lakes made me appreciate the earth in an 

entirely different way that would make my 9th grade geography teacher proud.