Otavalo Saturday Market

I’ve been writing about our adventures in Ecuador for the last three weeks, yet I feel compelled to write one last post to complete the series. Our trip was rather short, but each of its  segments was so  distinct from the other, and they were all so interesting and fun, that I just couldn’t fit them all into one post.

When we planned our trip and read the guide books, I noticed a mention of the Otavalo Saturday Market, which the books described as the biggest handicraft market in South America. Well, there was no way I was going to miss that! And so we made sure to leave time for Market Day.

The morning after our stay at Maquipucuna Cloud Forest, a Friday,  we headed about two hours north of Quito to the area of San Pablo Lake. We stopped for a quick visit to Cotacachi, a small town filled with leathercraft artisans, where we walked (in my case, limped) up and down the main street, admiring beautiful hand-made leather goods in  local stores. From there we headed to Condor Park, where we saw an impressive bird show, and then drove to where we were to stay for the night, a traditional country hacienda in one of the little towns near the lake.

I didn’t expect much of the hacienda, which I imagined to be a rustic, simple country lodge. When we arrived to find a gorgeous, meticulously-decorated Spanish colonial estate, my jaw literally dropped. Hacienda Cusin was the country estate of a powerful Spanish family for over three hundred and fifty years. It was sold in the 1970’s, and in the 1990’s was bought by an English teacher, who renovated the by-then dilapidated structure, and has been running it as a hotel ever since. The original building is now one part of a rather large complex, composed of several buildings of different sizes scattered among amazingly-spectacular gardens. Even the new buildings look very authentic, and could easily be mistaken for hundreds-of-years-old structures. Had I not read the detailed history brochure, I would not have known the difference!

This is the original building, the oldest part of the complex:

And this is the area near our room, which was actually a new-ish structure, yet looked really old nonetheless:

There was much attention to detail throughout the compound, both inside and out. This, for example, is a decoration to an outside wall, one of many:

And this is the main sitting room, one of several common areas:

This gate to one of the gardens reminded me of The Secret Garden. When I crossed it I wasn't the least disappointed! The other side was the closest thing I’ve seen to the Garden of Eden (hint: it was a fruit and vegetable garden, complete with a couple of grazing alpacas…):

I was deeply saddened that we only had one night to enjoy this magnificent place. And Oh, did I wish I could bring my bags there for a little photo-shoot! This could have been an amazing background for Any Texture products!

The next morning, Saturday, I took a huge dose of ibuprofen to calm my back pain, and we headed off to Otavalo. We first went to the animal market, where locals buy and sell livestock. We arrived around 9:00 am, by which time most of the action was over.  It was a bit disappointing, though my kids marveled at the concept of being able to buy a live animal at a market:

They felt so bad for these sheep, that I'm pretty sure we would have had a problem had we been a little closer to home...

The crafts market, however, was everything I had hoped it would be! Otavalo Market is a big maze of stalls carrying loads of products of all kinds, mostly for tourists. We were told everything was hand made by local tribespeople living in the mountains, and I really wanted to believe that (a part of me, though, suspected some items might have arrived from China). Still, it was fun to see the incredible burst of color, life and creativity.

This is what the market looked like:

And here are close-ups of some of the stalls. There were so many different crafts that it was quite overwhelming. There were stalls with paintings, some on  wood:

Stalls with jewelry, in this case all made out of tagua nuts, which I love:

Stalls with different kinds of masks:

And lots and lots of various  kinds of textiles:

Raw wool and woolen products were prolific.

Among the latter I especially enjoyed the many carpets, both wall and floor carpets, all hand woven. Just looking at them made me drool:

Needless to say, we loaded up on gifts, and didn’t dodge the occasional impulse-purchase. I am now the proud owner of a gorgeous hand-woven woollen carpet, which I have absolutely no place to put...

Maquipucuna Cloud Forest

The third segment of our Ecuador trip started on a sour note. When I settled into my airplane seat for the flight from the Galapagos back to Quito, I pinched a nerve in my lower back, which sent piercing pain down my leg. Henceforth, the remainder of the trip, for me, was clouded by excruciating pain and very limited mobility. Luckily I managed to enjoy it nonetheless!

Our next stop was the Eco Lodge at Maquipucuna Cloud Forest, a mere hour and a half away from Quito. Already on the bus we learned just how lucky we were: a few days prior to our arrival a few wandering Andean Spectacled Bears arrived at the forest surrounding the lodge!

The Spectacled Bears are an endangered species, with only a few thousand individuals remaining in the wild. They continuously migrate in search of food, so predicting when they will arrive at a certain location is nearly impossible. Some bear researches spent a lifetime studying these bears without ever seeing one. Bears started visiting Maquipucuna forest in 2009, and have been arriving every year since for a visit that can range from two weeks to three months. Arriving at the lodge in bear season, therefore, was a real stroke of luck.

We arrived mid day, and pretty much immediately went on a short hike to search for bears. I could barely walk and almost gave up, but one of the guides, Luis, volunteered to stay with me, and let me walk very slowly and rest whenever the pain was too much. I managed to limp for about two miles before seeing a bear climbing up a tree, eating its way while breaking large branches. The sight was well worth the effort!!

For the rest of our two-night, three-day visit I mostly stayed at the lodge (or took very short walks) while my family went searching for more bears (they saw quite a few). But I found the lodge to be such a pleasant place, that I didn’t mind staying behind all that much. This is what it looked like, the main building (where our rooms were located) being on the left:

This is the dining room, where we dined on delicious, fresh, cooked-on-site meals:

And the ceiling in our room, unlike any other ceiling I have ever slept under:

There was also a second floor for lounging and relaxation:

Our days started early, at 6:15 am, with a strong cup of Ecuadorian coffee made of beans grown on the premises. After coffee we went on a short birdwatching hike, and enjoyed seeing the many birds our guide located. We then feasted on a tasty breakfast, followed by a morning hike. There was also an afternoon hike after lunch, and one day we went on a night hike after dinner, and realized that the forest appears completely different after dark, including the animals one can spot!

This is what the secondary cloud forest looks like:

And, yes, there were Pokemons there, too:

The Maquipucuna  cloud forest was one of the first nature reserves in Ecuador, and is now home to nearly 400 species of birds, and a vast variety of plants, including hundreds of orchids (and other beautiful flowers!).

Even when I couldn’t go hiking, therefore, all I had to do was sit on the terrace and wait. Sooner or later an amazing bird showed up:

Our stay at the Lodge was memorable not only because of the surroundings and nature, but also because of the human interactions we experienced. We met a crew of dedicated local guides; a very nice family from Canada, and a two-person documentary crew from the BBC, who came to Maquipucuna to film the bears (one of the two used to work for National Geographic, and hearing about some of his adventures was very interesting!). We also met Santiago, Ecuador's leading bear researcher and conservationist, who gave an interesting presentation about the bears; and Nancy, an Entomologist (bug expert) volunteer, who has a degree in introducing bugs to the general population, and who also gave an interesting presentation about bugs (and was then forced by popular demand to give yet a second one).  This is Nancy showing us a spectacular bug she caught:

Nancy helps run a website that answeres bug questions, so if you are interested in bugs check it out: https://askentomologists.com

The Galapagos Islands

What brought us to Ecuador in the first place was my years-long desire to see the Galapagos Islands. After extensive reading and consulting with friends who recently traveled there, we settled on a four-night, five-day cruise to the Southern Islands. We chose to go on the biggest boat possible, the Galapagos Legend, both because we hoped it would reduce the chance of sea sickness (it did!), and because we thought it might offer more activities for the kids (did that, too :-)).

Despite thinking I knew what to expect, the surprises started coming while we were still on the plane from Quito to San Cristobal:

The first unexpected occurrence was an announcement by the crew that they will spray us with disinfectant. This is part of an attempt to protect the islands from invasive pathogens. In the end, they sprayed only the overhead compartments, but it still felt a bit weird. I don’t recall ever being disinfected on a plane before!

When we started landing, all I could see from the window was the blue of the ocean, getting closer, and closer, and closer yet… Right when I felt the first pang of panic the wheels touched down on land. The plane managed to stop shortly before the runway ended, a very short distance from where the ocean started again…

We deplaned on San Cristobal, which--after a ten-hour trip from San Francisco to Quito, followed by an additional four-hour flight from Quito--felt like the end of the world. Yet, when we arrived at the airport my son was thrilled to find … Pokemons (!!) on the Islands. WHAT THE?????? They were all over the place, it later turned out, to his great joy and my annoyance…

On the short bus-ride from the airport to the pier I imagined myself walking leisurely onto the boat, only to find ... a rubber zodiac waiting with a big pile of life vests.

A few exciting minutes of holding tight passed before the mothership came to view. But then I wondered if I would have to climb up the flimsy-looking rope-ladder…

I didn’t have to. The other side of the boat revealed a real door :-):

By the end of the trip I was a pro at getting on and off zodiacs, and doing both dry and wet shore landings (the later of which called for getting off the boat into shallow water).

On our tour of San Cristobal I wondered what happened to the trees, and why they were all dead:

Turned out they weren’t. They were very much alive, just conserving water while waiting for the rains. In a couple of weeks, we were promised, they will be all green.

San Cristobal was where we saw our first sea lion:

And first crabs:

We then sailed to uninhabited Espanola, where we started to feel the real magic of the Galapagos. There is the magic of life itself, in the form of both flora and fauna, clinging desperately to a harsh, inhospitable environment. It was truly amazing to see how much life a flat, infertile volcanic island could support.

There were hundreds of sea lions of all ages sprawled everywhere, the representatives of the mammal family:

Lizards were represented by small Lava Lizards:

By the much bigger Marine iguanas:

And, in the ocean, by sea turtles:

The majority of Galapagos inhabitants are of the bird family, however. We saw seabirds:

A beautiful hawk:

Nazca Boobies, some with chicks:

Albatrosses, a few of which were engaged in their courting dance:

A fly catcher:

And a beautiful Finch:

There is also powerful magic that comes from being very close to wildlife that is not afraid of humans. We were supposed to stay a couple of meters away from the animals, but the animals, it turned out, were not aware of that rule. They seemed just as curious about us as we were about them. Perhaps they have never seen anything like my Galapagos hairdue:

Then there is, of course, the magic of life adaptability, which struck Darwin when he first visited the islands almost two hundred years ago, leading him to come up with his evolution theory. This becomes more apparent after visiting more than one island.

The last kind of magic, to me, came in the form of death that is very much a part of life. There were carcasses all over, and they were all integrated back into the environment by the weather, other animals and by decomposition:

The next day, on Floreana, we learned about the history of the first crazy German settlers and the mystery surrounding them, and were super excited to see our first Blue-footed Boobie:

We also saw a few flamingos from afar:

Before we left we made sure to deposit letters in the local “post office.” Time will tell if they will ever arrive:

On Santa Cruz Island, the least-wild of them all, we saw the famed giant Galapagos land tortoises (actually, each island used to have its own unique kind, but some were extinct after being collected for food by early Western sailors):

We visited the Darwin Center, where we saw our only land iguana:

We left the Galapagos with a heavy heart. We felt like we could have stayed much longer, and wished we could have seen the reminder of the islands. A reason to come back, perhaps?