Otavalo market

Saturday morning is market day in Otavalo and this has been the case for hundreds of years.

Not that any other day of the week there is no market in the streets of Otavalo. It is only that on Saturday the whole town becomes a huge market.

Most of the streets in the city centre are closed to the traffic and stalls selling all sorts of things appear everywhere.

The real deal in our opinion is however happening just outside town, next to the “stadium”.

This is where the animal market takes place.

You need to be there quite early in the morning to see all the action.

If you do, please do not follow my steps. In fact I thought I would save some time by skipping breakfast and grabbing and eating something at the market.....well, let’s put it this way, the smell around is not exactly conducive to eating....

Beside the negotiation we really enjoyed seeing people (man women kids) leaving the market with their purchases under their arms, and I mean chicken, goats, pigs, cows, all alive and screaming.

If you are interested in buying livestock in Otavalo more or less these are the ongoing prices, or at least what we understood:

Big Pig = $200

Piglet = $50

Pair of hens (apparently they only sell in pairs) = $9

Guinea pig  (local delicacy) = starting at $5, but you can negotiate down to $4

Sorry, we could not grasp the price of cows and goats.....

Ah, by the way, did anyone see my rooster?

After all that morning action, if you still have energy you might want to get on the bus and for 25 cents go10 km outside town and relax at the laguna San Pablo for a nice meal and a tour on a boat.