Sunday 2-15-09: El Lechero & Cotacachi

On Sunday, we woke up early in Otavalo and passed by the people setting up the market all over again. This is a lot of work to do every day! Britton tried his hand at it, what a cutie, he´s much bigger than the indigenous people. After our coffee and fresh bread, a taxi took us up a nearby mountain side and stopped next to a field of wheat and other farm plants and told us that this was as far as he could take us, if we wanted to see the lechero we would have to hike up the hill through this field. Is he pulling our leg? Well, he left and we hiked through the field, are we trespassing? Well, our Lonely Planet book says that this is a neat place so we continued. The Ecuadoreans have believed for over 100 years that this lone tree in the middle of a mound has magical healing powers. It looks like a tree out of a Dr. Seuss book and since there are no others like it around, it is a bit mysterious.

The real reason to come to the lechero though (other than a little healing) is for the views!!! You can see a snow capped volcano in the distance and the mountain side farming all around. Again we hiked back down the mountain through some farms and captured a closer picture of Otavalo, this time the hike was only about 2 miles.

Next, we took a bus about 20 minutes north to an indigenous town called Cotacachi. This town is known for it´s handmade leather goods. We walked around a bit, saw the main square and cathedral, and Britton bought two belts. The belts were cut to his size and the local children were thrilled to play with the extra pieces of leather. We took a taxi back to Otavalo, had lunch, and then took a bus back to Quito. Sunday night: Dinner with Yolanda and René, as usual it was delicious.

Britton took this picture to show the propensity to diversify in Ecuadorean stores. This furniture store also sells motorcycles. The drycleaner by our house is also a florist. And the internet spot that I´m at right now is actually a pharmacy. It seems to be a very smart use of space and provides more assurance that the business will make money each day.