Carnaval in Otavalo

We arrived in Quito at 5:30 in the morning from Puerto Lopez, we left for Otavalo at 7 in the morning. There are two bus terminals in the city so we ended up having to take a cab, which ended up being a 40 minute drive, to the terminal to where buses left for Otavalo. The market at Otavalo is one of the things you cannot miss if you go to Ecuador, allll the guidebooks recommend it and so does pretty much every traveler you run into. 

That stuff loved my hair

I was pretty tired when we finally got to Otavalo, so I took a two hour nap (at like 9:30 am), before we headed out. It's a pretty small town but we heard about a really pretty park/waterfall close by so that's where we headed. It was February 17th, the first day of Carnaval celebrations. All the students were just getting out of school and throwing water everywhere and spraying each other with this foam-silly string-like stuff, it was pink and smelled slightly of raspberries haha. Us gringas were waiting at the bus stop when we first got hit. There was this wall behind the bus stop and over it came flying a giant bucket of water that landed right on me and Brianna, getting us pretty wet. We were pretty shocked and all the locals started laughing at us, there was not much we could do but laugh too. Then once we moved to a safer location, a bus came by and when the doors opened, whoever was inside unloaded a can of that foam stuff, not such a safe location after all.

The waterfall

We made it to the waterfall which was really pretty. But walking through the park I could not help but notice all the kids throwing water and I knew that being a tourist was not gonna help us escape, we were in for it. Walking up to one of the viewpoints for the waterfall, we were asked to take pictures with this group of kids. At first I though they wanted a photo of their whole group, but no, they just wanted some white chicks in their pictures. So we obliged, but even after, when we were walking away we knew they were still snapping away with their cameras. I officially feel like a celebrity, where the role paparazzi is played young ecuadorians using camera phones. On our walk back to the entrance of the park is when we got captured and thrown in the river...

Since we had arrived at the waterfall, a ton more people had entered the park, it seemed like there was no "safe route" to escape. We started walking down this one path and noticed about 20 screaming girls running towards us (this is all in good fun, so when I say screaming, think like screaming-giggling) so we turned around and bolted too. We made it to a part where there was an opening in the path and stepped aside to let all the screaming girls go by. Mistake. We thought that the boys chasing them would just continue chasing them and pass the tourists aside. We were so naive. The boys slowed down when they came to us, glanced at the girls they were originally chasing, then started chanting, "GRINGAS! AL AGUA" (White chicks, to the water!) Oh shiiittttttt. We started pleading, please no, please no, I don't want to get wet. Completely useless, we were being herded towards the river. Briana and I were still resisting, we I was finally like "OK, ok, fine. But can we go one at a time, so our backpacks don't get wet?" They were at least nice enough to let us do that. I would have been PISSED if my camera got ruined, PISSED! but it didn't, thank god. Briana was first, and with a sad puppy dog look on her face they lifter her up and threw her in (keep in mind it's not like a huge rushing river, more like a large creek) then just started splashing to make sure she was thoroughly soaked. I was next.... They definitely made sure that there was no part of me that was dry, completely drenched, head to toe. Even my waterproof hiking books could not withstand being completely submerged and my socks got all squishy and gross. I HATE that feeling, so that was honestly the worst part haha. 

Lunch for $1.50 (Not pictured: the second plate of meat, rice, salad, and patacones

After that whole experience they let us go in peace, but what an experience it was. At first I was kind of irritated that it happened, then I just started bursting out laughing and I am glad I got to experience Carnaval in that way. It was a Carnaval experience so different than copious amounts of drinking and massive parties that everyone is expecting, but to me it felt more authentic. Walking back through the park to the entrance, we got plenty of people pointing, laughing, and thinking to themselves ooooohhhh, they got the gringas. We had to beg a cab driver to let us into his cab soaking wet by telling him that we would sit on our jackets (that were still dry), we just wanted to get back to the hostel and have hot showers. The cab's seats still got completely soaked, but he was really nice about it. That evening, we were pretty freaking wiped out, we searched for a cozy cafe where we could just relax, eat some tasty food, read, and journal. It was quite an exciting day.

One of the side streets

Day 2 in Otavalo was equally as exciting but for a different reason: SHOPPING! I had been so good on the trip, not buying too many things, but that state of mind went out the window. This market is HUGE! It takes over the entire town, you could walk for 15 minutes on one street in one direction without escaping the white stalls and vendors. Incredible. It's really neat because the market has different "sections": meat, veggies, flowers, food to retain shopping sustenance, clothes for the locals, clothes for the tourists, other tourist stuff, jewelry, etc. The stuff was cool too! It was nice, not like so many of the other "artisan" markets in South America. Ecuador definitely takes the cake for coolest artesania (I don't know that translation in English). 

I spent so much money, but everything I bought was a smart purchase. The really fun part is that you get to haggle or bargain to get the price you want. Briana is a pro! She was trying to teach me her ways, but I'm just not as good at it. I don't think I ever got ripped off, but I also probably could have paid less if I really wanted to get down to the nitty gritty. The size of my backpack, which I thought was already pretty full, basically grew 1/3. I had been so good shopping wise on the trip so far, so I did go a little nuts, but even today I don't regret any of the purchases I made. 

SO MANY PRETTY PATTERNS!

 Now with our ginormo backpacks, we decided it was time to make our way back to Quito. This is one thing I love about backpacking South Am, when you are ready to leave, you just get up and go. We walked to the bus terminal and just got on a bus headed for Quito, no ticket or anything. I mean we ended up paying once we were on our way, but it's just so easy. Buses leave all the time and little planning is needed (Obviously this state of mind bit us in the ass a couple of times, but for the most part, it always works out.) So Ecuador continued to amaze me, and Quito would be no exception.