El Mercado de Otavalo

Last night I practically had to drag Zach out of the room to check out the local nightlife. I have to give credit though, after a little cajoling, coaxing, and threatening on my part he agreed to come along and chupa algunas cervezas conmigo.

As we were walking to one of the local penas (bars with live music that charge a cover)we ran into a gaggle of giggling seattle-ites trying in vain to find somewhere to go. I had used by broken Spanish earlier in the day to get some information from the locals about some nearby bars and penas, so I had an idea. We eventually ended up at the most crowded pena where the floor was packed with locals dancing the Salsa. We were the only gringos there. I had a lot of fun dancing around and talking to some local kids, and even Zach drank enough cerveza to dance with one of the girls he liked.

We left around 2 or 3 and walked back home. At 5 a.m. we were both jolted awake by a series of gunshots and bells ringing... it sounded like the livestock market was getting underway.

Later we dragged our selves out of bed and hit the market. Thousands of people filled the streets and slowly walked through the fabric drapped squares that were vendor stands. A few hous after going to the market we ran into the americanos that we were hanging out with last night. These puffy-eyed grouchy lads obviously didn´t fare as well as Zach and I, so we joked around with them a bit before heading off our separate way again.

Now back to the market for some good ol´american style consumerism and a bite to eat. ciao!