In the sunshine of Otavalo

Friday, November 16th

Sara here, traveling solo for now as Phyllis and Helen are in the jungle with a completely different experience until Monday.   I am staying with Carmen and Carlos, parents of my son's fiancee in Otavalo.  Carmen and Carlos have a hotel where they have their living space, a home across a patio where I am staying, a church within this complex and a small free clinic off the street.   Today a young man who I think is a doctor is sitting at a table at the entrance with a sign saying that he will give free prescriptions.

The sun is out and so are the beautiful volcanic peaks that surround the valley and town of Otavalo.   I look out at the peak that is the cover photo for our blog.  The altitude is about 8000 feet and population of just the city about 40,000.  Carmen and Carlos came picked me up in Quito yesterday and we went together to the incredible ethnographic museum close to the hostel.   Going there with them was a treat because of course, this is their culture so they explained more than I ever would have gotten from struggling through all the display information in Spanish.   They were accompanied by a new teacher at the University of  Otavalo where Carmen teaches, Gracia.   After lunch we drove to Otavalo and that was in itself quite an experience.   First dense, pollution spewing traffic.   Then driving a long time by the construction site of the next Quito airport and the highway expansion that goes along with it.   Suffice it to say once on the drive, I yelled at Carmen to stop as I saw dirt and rocks tumbling down the hillside.   I looked up to see bulldozers moving dirt on a mountainside just over the Pan American highway while cars whizz by.   When we got out of this mess, we drove for miles through flower plantations as most of the flowers we buy in the US come from Ecuador.   Then into a rural area of the mountains where lush green terraces flourish with every INCH cultivated.  At last, Otavalo.

Carlos and Carmen know that I want to cook while I'm here as the foods in the market just blow my mind.   So this morning after a breakfast of papaya and Carmen's delicious cheese empanadas, Carlos took me downtown,   I watched a funeral procession near a beautiful town square while he paid a bill in the office behind me.   Then we went to the mercado where I could spend hours and hours but sensed Carlos didn't want to spend the day there!   I came home with the ingredients for spagetti with meatballs and salad, having had to taste the parsley to see if it was what I want because I didn't know the word for parsley.   I'm carrying a notebook and my trusty dictionary now.

Carlos asked if I'd heard from Helen and Phyllis.   My response,  nope, they are in communication with the mosquitos in the jungle.   And given this totally different keyboard, I can't figure out how to make quotation marks.   Paddling hard to keep up in Spanish!

Six word story for the day.   Dogs barking, cars alarming, night in Ecuador.