Otovalo and Cotocachi, about 2-3 hours outside of Quito was our first trip out of the city. Zooming past huge jagged volcanic mountain craters, and deep blue lakes, it was great to get out of apartment buildings and offices.
Otovalo is a huge market town, which sells a bit of everything. It is famed as the largest indigenous market in South America and is a big tourist draw. There is a lot of local pride in the history of the market as well as in the quality of the wool and woven goods sold there. We'll likely need to spend more time there (and in Ecuador) to get a better sense of the unique local flavor; this time it felt like a fairly standard crafts market. It was pretty laid back compared to markets in Africa- you still bargain but you shouldn't assume that the real price (or anything close to it) is a 10th of what the seller asks.
Cotocachi is known for its leather goods and stores sell anything you can imagine from alpaca chaps to leather jackets and pants.
After those two towns we met with a local artist who showed us some of his murals and his house/workshop. A was definitely having a good time as you can see in her photos.
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