the Otavalo Market
The Otavalos are an indigenous people who have lived since ancient times in the Andean region of northern Ecuador.
They were skilled textile makers and smart long range traders and survived as an ethnic group both the short-lived Inca occupation and the long and harsh Spanish colonial period.
 
In the 1550's Rodrigo de Salazar set up a weaving industry with scores of Otavalos as a slave workforce and soon exported the textiles all over colonial South America.
Ever since, the town of Otavalo is the center for low cost high quality textiles.
 
Today the Otavalo Saturday Market with its textiles and handicrafts is a major tourist attraction, but the market is also important to the locals who trade everything here, including livestock.  
Otavalo is also famous for the traditional music and several local groups tour the world with Andean New Age music
 
Tour operators provide daytrips from Quito to Otavalo with a stop at Calderon, a town known for its decorative Marzipan, small figurines made of bread dough.
Tours also stop at San Pedro Lake.
 
We did the Otavalo daytrip in May 2009.
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others are already open for business
this young lady seems to be a bit late for the Otavalo market
a distant view of scenic Lago San Pedro, 8 km south of Otavalo
generations
she travels with mom
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in Calderon we watch the production of the famous marzipan bread figurines
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She made it
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souvenirs anybody?
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these ladies wear the traditional dress
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the local taxi arrives
Otavalo is famous for its Inca music
the traditional way to dry maize
locals return from the market
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