Otavalo Day 3 - The Markets

Saturday May 28

Today we woke much like we did yesterday to the sound of roosters crowing, dogs barking, general busyness around the hostel and 20 minutes of celebration music starting at 6:30. The owners warned us and apologized in advance to which we said no problemo. Now we know why they were apologizing.

We we were first unpacking our bags when we noticed there was a Gideon's Bible on every nightstand, not something you see that often anymore. I had to ask the owners if they were followers of Christ which the affirmed in very broken English. We talked with them for quite a while about this and learned that many Christian Missionaries stay at their hostel while they hold Bible classes around Otavalo.

After more conversation we learned that the matriarch of the hostel, Matilde, was from a native tribe of Ecuador and spoke the native tongue, Kichua, as well as Spanish.  It was this combination, as well as being a Christ follower, that led to her being asked to translate a Bible into the Kichua language. At first she declined as she has only had education through a few high school years and no formal Bible training. But the task fit no one else so she took it on, with Gods help of course.

Not knowing the original languages of Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic much less having access to any original language manuscripts, she used five different translations in Spanish as her source texts. With much prayer and late nights, five years after starting, she had a finished product. What a blessing to have been used for such a purpose.

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

It is market day in Otavalo and this is known to be the biggest market in South America. It was very large, taking up the market square plus many of the streets in the center of town. Our first stop was the animal market on the edge of town. These are always something to see for suburban slickers like us.

There were different sections to the animal market including cows, pigs, chickens, guinea pigs, ducks, and bunnies. It was a little chaotic and a little gross and I think it made Tara seriously consider becoming a vegetarian, at least until lunch.

This was a tough shot to get. At one point it seemed that everyone was running around with a handful of inverted chickens.

Piggies are always cute.

Well, maybe not always.

Markets are generally interesting until you have seen the standard pattern of goods that everyone is selling. You know, the one of a kind things that you cannot get anywhere else, except in the dozen other booths that are somehow selling the same identical handmade things.  There are certainly genuine articles to be had, but also the Chinese are very good at wholesaling the artisan out of town. Which, as it happens, is where we are headed tomorrow, to see some actual production. We did this in Vietnam and it was very interesting. Especially when the girls caused the line to shut down in the brick making factory.

The girls are certainly modeling the real deal here but we could not really justify the purchase.

We had a late lunch at Taco Bello which is a locals favorite. It is owned and operated by a man that managed a Taco Bell back in L.A.  It tastes so much better than The Bell and the price was very cheap.

After that we headed up the hill and relaxed until dinner, which they served at the hostel that night. The girls were excited so see that the appetizer was popcorn.

I don't know if I have mentioned this yet, but there dogs roaming everywhere and sometimes they collect in packs. When they do it can get very noisy. Just under our window we had one such gathering this evening. It was the loudest dog mayhem I think I have ever heard.

Another noise you hear in Otavalo is the trash truck. Not that the mechanism makes any distinct sound, but that the trash collector plays a tune, like the Pied Piper of Garbage. You can hear it from up on our hill making its way through the city streets much like the ice cream man's tune back home.

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