Otavalo Market and Condor Park

Wednesday Nov 13

We have to move out of our overnight parking spot by 8AM when you have to start paying again. It's only 50 cents and hour but we can't figure out how or where to pay. So we move closer to the market where we can find free parking.

Love the street lights

Wall paintings - I tried to find out who Juyala Pacha is but found nothing

Streets are narrow here, at least they are oneway :) 

This is the main square of Otavalo where we parked overnight - near the church

These are all hand embroidered blouses that the indigenous women wear along with the black skirts. 

This guy was bringing over the bags of goods for this lady to setup at here stall

When we got to the market area and found a parking spot we headed to a restaurant for breakfast.  Dwayne had eggs and chorizo and I had a ham and gouda cheese sandwich. The bun was pretty pretty big and crusty so I give Dwayne the top of my bun to have with his eggs :)  total for breakfast was $7.50.  As we sit and look out at the market, we see so much color. Of course every booth looks like it has the same stuff. It reminds me of Chichicastenango in Guatemala, but much smaller.  Just booth after booth of the same. But I did manage to buy another wall hanging for our house in Honduras, a nice bright tablecloth and Dwayne got himself a new tshirt :)  After a couple of hours in the square it was time to head to the Condor park.

Lots of color in Ecuador. Paintings, rug hangings, blankets etc. Very much like Guatemala

We bought a wall hanging and tablecloth from this lady. If you look close you can see the many strings of gold coloured beads they wear everyday along with a few red stone necklaces.

wall hanging for our house

And a nice bright tablecloth 

And Dwayne got his Ecuador/Equator t-shirt

This is how all the vendors pack and unpack their goods everyday in this huge bags

I didnt see the lady peeking thru her wall hangings until after the picture - she then asked me to come see her goods. No gracias yo tango No thanks I already have

Back on the cobblestone road to get to the park

Lambs tied up at the side of the road

We got there shortly after it opened because I had read there is quite a bit to see before the show.  So we walked first to the exhibit building where there are maps showing where the birds are from. Unfortunately all in Spanish.  There was a piece of canvas stretched out with a condor painted on it to show the size and wingspread. It's HUGE! Dwayne has an armspan of 6' and it didnt reach the ends of the condor's wings! The Condor is the National bird of Ecuador.

Dwayne could be taken away by a condor!

Thought this owl looked so cute 

Steller's Sea Eagle - from Siberia beautiful looking eagle

This Bald Eagle just looked plain mean!!

Looking up at Angel Trumpet flowers

The city of Otavalo

When it was time for the show we took a seat on the rock bleachers. The birdman brought out a few small birds but again everything was in Spanish but it was fun to see the birds fly back to him each time to get more food. The birds all get chicken as their food. Then the birdman brought out a large eagle. He let him fly out into the valley. I guess this is routine and the eagle comes back. But today while he was out flying around it started to rain. Because of the rain there is a problem with updrafts meaning it could be awhile before the bird comes back! We could see it flying for awhile and then landed. Then it flew again but never got close to the birdman.  Because of this problem no more birds could be brought out until the Eagle has landed back home! LOL!!! We thought the show was quite short, it was another couple that told us the reason. It had stopped raining before we left but without the bird back nothing happens.  There is another show in the afternoon at 3:30 but I'll bet this eagle won't get to show off his flying skills! Would have been interesting to know how long it took for the eagle to come back.  Also, I guess they dont bring out the condor to show.  I took a picture of it but didnt look good - actually the bird itself is not a great looker!! Long skinny featherless neck and then a big white fluffy collar. The head looks like a turkey. Anyways kinda ugly! But I guess since it is a vulture it's not going to look pretty!

Then we decide to drive towards Quito and head west to check out some more small villages and check out where the equator is 😃 We also found out the price for gas here is 62 cents/litre while in Colombia it was 88 cents. So guess we'll be saving some money here on gas 👍

Not sure why these pigs are allowed out where the crops are planted? Would think they'd eat it all?? But they look cute in their harness :)

One of the locals walking along the road. What to show how they all wear rows of red beads on both their wrists.

Tonight I thought I would try making stovetop pizza LOL!!  Since I have no oven it's the only way I could make one.  I mix up my dough and find I dont have enough flour because the dough is really sticky - not sure if it's because we are at 8000'?? I end up having to use some pancake mix to try and save the dough. It worked.  So once I let it rise for 30 mins I put it into a hot frypan and cook the bottom. Once it was nice and brown I flipped it over and then quickly added the sauce, smoked chicken slices, onions, peppers, mushrooms and then slices of mozzarella cheese and covered the pan.  Once the bottom with brown I turned down the stove to try and get the cheese to melt so more.  I did learn once we had the pizza, that I have to cook the onions, peppers and mushrooms before putting on the pizza, they were not that cooked :(  The dough was also pretty thick, so can use half of the dough. Anyways it was fun to try :)

It's no Pizza Hut pizza but it tasted not to bad

But it was a bit thick!