Weekends are the greatest. I mean I know that most people like weekends. For most it's a break from school or work, from real responsibility, and it's a time to blow off steam or relax or have fun with your friends, etc. etc. But here weekends are reallllly the greatest. We get to do such cool things. I forget about school until Sunday and just throw myself into whatever I'm doing, whether that be on vacation somewhere around Ecuador or in Quito itself. I allow myself to embrace the vacation-ing aspect of study abroad on the weekends and I'm not going to apologize for it. :)
Weekend Gone: Otavalo.
Last weekend Becky, Carly, Emory, Vicki, Megan, Rebecca, and I went to Otavalo. Otavalo is a small-ish town known for their indigenous population and their amazing artesanal market. It's only a 2-hour bus ride away from Quito so it's a popular destination for both tourists and Ecuadorians. We went on Friday night because we had heard that there was a really cool animal market (where people buy and sell animals, not like a petting zoo...) in the morning on Saturdays that we didn't want to miss. We stayed the night at this really cool hostal that was open in the middle, like it had a courtyard and when you walked out of your room you were under a roof but you could lean over the balcony and see the sky. On the ground floor of the courtyard there were also these amazing hammock chairs. Like seriously, they were so cool. We ate dinner at a wonderful restaurant that the hotel guy had suggested to us and then we went out on the town. This was not going out on the town like in Quito. Not even close. We had heard there were, "cool Andean music bars" that were "kind of all in a row." Welp, not sure if we actually ever found those while wandering around the completely deserted streets of Otavalo. Seriously, there was like no one out on the street which was a very strange feeling. We finally found a little row of bars and tried out a couple of them. Both were very cool. I love going to bars and restaurants in new cities. They just have such a different feel to them and it's really interesting. The next day we woke up nice and early, had a panaderia breakfast...
Side Note: Panaderia Breakfast
A panaderia is a bread store. There were tons of them all over Otavalo but there was also one right outside our hotel that we could see from our balconies. The scent of freshly baked bread wafted over and we couldn't resist. Also, bread here is really cheap so even though the breakfast in the hotel was only $3 we knew we could get it for cheaper ("how about for cheaper?") if we went the panaderia way. I picked out 2 pieces of bread and a little container of cream cheese for my panaderia breakfast and it was delish. :)
...and took a $1 taxi ride across town to the animal market. The animal market was crazy. Basically it was a big dirt field filled with Indigenous people and animals. Chickens, guinea pigs, kittens, puppies, pigs, llamas, horses, cows, sheep, etc. I've never experienced anything like it.
Photos!
Then we went to the artesan market. Another amazing thing the likes of which I've never experienced. The streets were full of vendors and their beautiful wares. Panama hats, gorgeous colorful jewelery, fantastic art, pants, shirts, pipes, incense burners, coasters, scarves, food, anything you could think of and everywhere you turned was beauty. We wandered and bargained (which is expected and necessary) and purchased and smiled and then it was time to go home.
Weekend Current: Parque Metropolitano, Los Mercados Cercas, y Plaza Foch
Seeing as next weekend we're headed off to the playa (spoiler alert), this weekend I stayed close to Quito. On Friday I went walking through Parque Metropolitano (the largest urban park in South America) with Becky and then Rebecca, Becky, and I had some dinner and delicious frozen lemonade at the Mexican restaurant right next to Becky's apartment and watched some movies, a great relaxing Friday. On Saturday I woke up to the most gorgeous day. It was sunny, it was bright, and it was beautiful. Had a great brunch and then headed out to Parque El Ejido which is a smaller park in Quito that has art vendors and other artesanal vendors on Saturdays. Meandered around there with Matt, Tracy, and Alex for awhile and bought some more gifts, then went to another little market thing in Mariscal. This one is open during the week too and is partially inside. After awhile everything started to look the same but that didn't stop the internal must-buy urges. Jaja. Then I met up with Becky and we went to El Jardín which is a mall (centro comercial) near Parque La Carolina. We tried to find a book she needed for a class but we were unsuccessful, so we drowned our woes in Crepes & Waffles ice cream. Crepes & Waffles is a most delicious and amazing restaurant/coffee shop/ice cream store that is popular in the malls here. Let me tell you, we need to get them in the U.S. My coffee toffee and choco rochelle double-scoop cone cost $1.60 and was spectacular. And in a waffle cone! Free of charge! Amazing.
Saturday night we headed out to Plaza Foch (the hoppin' bar district) and went, what do you know, bar hopping! We discovered The Boot (La Bota) where you can sit on the second floor in the open air and look out at the busy streets while drinking 2-for-1 vodka sprites. And we also discovered Strawberry Fields Forever, a bar themed around The Beatles. They had art and newspaper clippings and drink names and music. And their chairs were the coolest things ever.
And today I'm just chilling. Sat out on the balcony in the sun for awhile and wrote a paper for one of my classes, uploaded some pics, posting this, relaxing, and getting excited for the playaaaaaaa!
Weekends Forthcoming: La Playa...Same, Ecuador
NEXT WEEKEND WE ARE GOING TO THE BEACHHHHHHH! oh my gosh i'm just so excited. We get next Monday and Tuesday off for Carnival so I'm skipping my classes on Friday and heading off to the beach a little bit early. We're taking a bus from Mariscal overnight to the coast on Thursday and will arrive Friday morning for a long weekend of fun, relaxing, sun, sand, and did I say fun? We're staying in condo-type things at Casablanca. We'll have our own kitchen to whip up meals if we don't feel like spending money at a restaurant some days and it's walking distance from the beach. How. Exc. Iting. Also, there are jet skis and ocean kayaks and horseback riding and clubs, etc. etc. etc. I don't know how I'm going to be able to go back to school after this weekend is done. Jaja. Anyways, I'm super duper excited! And also Rebecca's boyfriend Robert is bringing me a new camera from the States because my camera is turning janky and cameras cost like four times what they do in the U.S. here. YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY. :D
Casablanca
<3
-EM
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