Otavalo

Hola! I have been doing lots of fun things the past few days! Wednesday was a big soccer game in Ecuador - the championship game between Ecuador and Argentina. I went to my mom's cousins house to watch the game. We ate hot dogs with crushed potato chips on top. very odd. Thursday I got a pedicure with my friends and it only cost $5! Thursday night we went out to the Mariscal and had another fun, dancing filled night. Friday I didn't have class so i relaxed, hung out with friends, and baked brownies for another friends birthday. For her bday, we all went to a really good restaurant called tapas y vino. It was very expensive for ecuador standards - $20 - but we got unlimited wine and tapas! It was delicious!! 

Today we went to Otavalo - an indigenous village 2 hours away from Quito. In the morning, we went to a woodcrafting shop, an instrument shop, and a beautiful waterfall!! After lunch, we went to the market at Otavalo. It's the largest indigenous market in Ecuador. It was amazing! There were probably 100 stalls set up with the most beautiful handcrafted goods. I bought handmade scarfs for $2, a handmade belt for $5, a sterling silver and turquoise ring for $6 and a really pretty necklace for $2!! It was really fun to bargain!

This is the waterfall at Otavalo.

We got soaking wet standing up there

This is from the very top of the waterfall! (we hiked to the top). If we took 1 step backwards, we all would have fallen to our deaths. It was pretty scary.

This is the market at Otavalo. There are 100s of stands all like this selling beautifully handcrafted goods!