Otavalo

Yesterday (Friday) we went to the Otavalo Mercado (Market). We went on Friday instead of today because Saturday's are supposedly just crazy and too busy - so we enjoyed the entire market to ourselves, which was pretty nice and relaxing believe it or not.

The market is jammed with a ton of different handmade textiles, ranging from alpaca rugs, blankets, sweaters, socks, to wool ponchos, silver jewelry, stone work, hand carved gourds in amazing detail, to hats and t-shirts.

We made it about two steps in to the market (literally) and bought three alpaca blankets for $15 each. Negotiations are about as easy as it gets...all you do is start to walk away and they drop the price. Keep walking and they end up giving it to you for what you offered to begin with...

These gourds are just amazing in detail, telling stories about the indigenous life in the Andes, myths and legends.

The craftsmanship here goes beyond expectations. If you're used to seeing open markets in Mexico or other places then you'll be delightfully surprised at the quality of materials and design; and the prices are a steal!

We found some excellent silver jewelry - but we were caught off guard with the stamp of "950", which we had never seen before. We are used to "925" so we were a little gun shy - so we ran over to an internet cafe to research what the heck "950" was and if it was legit. If you know anything about silver then you probably know that the numbers represent the % of silver in the jewelry. That silver is so soft they have to mix something like copper or nickel in to make it stronger - so the "925" means 92.5% silver. Thus we found that "950" means it's actually BETTER silver, having 95.0% silver in it! Obviously Ivy was pleasantly surprised by this little fact and we ran back and purchased her some jewelry - amazingly cheap!

So, needless to say, we'll be exporting some 950 silver jewelry back to the US of A!

It is a little more chilly here in Cotacachi - around 50 degrees in the morning since we're at

around 7500-8000 feet above sea level; so buying a wool poncho and some alpaca socks was a good idea. Ivy loves her soft and warm socks...

We'll be heading out to a volcanic lake near Cotacachi this afternoon - so check back later for some pictures of the area here - it's stunning. Reminds us of Italy and Spain.