Saturday morning was a bit of an early one, as Jenny and her mom wanted to take me for a drive outside of Quito once again. This time, we would be headed to Otavalo, a small town about an hour-and-a-half north of the capital. The town, populated heavily by indigenous folk, is also known for the manufacture and sale of many unique indigenous handicrafts, including blankets, sweaters and tapestries. Of course, the idiot in me emerged profoundly, and I forgot to whip out my camera to take a few pictures. Therefore, this entry is not going to be picture-heavy in the slightest. I apologize now for that, before you get lost in all the dry humor I will try to use to compensate.
Little did I know that, upon arrival, I was to receive a healthy lesson in hiding and haggling from my hosts. One thing that we learn as gringos when traveling to Latin America is that there are far more informal markets than in the typical American town. With informal markets come not-so-set prices: anyone who has never learned to haggle in their lives finds themselves with a bit of a learning curve. I for one am horrible at it, as I really don't have the stomach to tell someone indirectly that their sweater isn't worth $20. The only instances where I do get just a little bit lucky are when I walk away, and the salesman can't stand the notion of losing a sale. Otavalo, with its thousands of gringo and non-indigenous Ecuadorian customers every weekend, doesn't have that problem.
I learned from Vinny that in Otavalo, salesmen set three prices: let's imagine that you're selling a sweater. First, there's the gringo price, that suckers such as you and I pay. An indigenous person might be generous and offer it to you for $30-35. Second, there's the mestizo price, that a non-indigenous Ecuadorian would pay. They might get the price knocked down to the low $20's. Finally, there's the indigenous price, which probably is right around what the poor souls need to break even. However, showing solidarity with their indigenous neighbors, they will sell the sweater to them more in good faith than to make a quick buck. Let's put that price at around $15.
Because I shop for indigenous goodies about as well as Amish people shop for iPhones, Jenny and Vinny took the lead. I pointed to something that I liked from a distance and said it was something that either my family or I would be interested in, and one of them sent me for a walk while the other went to ask about the price. At least, as Ecuadorians, they could negotiate the middle price to start. I saw an alpaca blanket that I liked, and so I gave Jenny a little money and walked away, pretending to look at something else. I made a ballpark figure in my head of what the blanket would cost, and I was amazed when Jenny walked back to me with the blanket and change in her hands! I was grateful and amused at the same time. I also managed to find an Ecuador soccer scarf and a wristband, all while spending under $25. These purchases would not have been possible without Jenny and Vinny, clearly better shoppers (and hagglers) than I.
We had some authentic fish and potatoes for lunch at a nice family restaurant about halfway home. From my Maranhão experience, I'm not too bad at picking at a fish that still has its spines, but alas, I probably still ingested two or three of the damn things. Oh well... they still taste fine with a little spritz of lemon, and there are still no holes in my esophagus to this day.
After another late afternoon epic nap, I woke up to some semi-loud music. Pulling on some clothes, I walked out to the living room of Jenny's family's house to find her family and another singing karaoke. Although I didn't understand most of the music being performed, I figured I'd sit down and join them. Wouldn't you know, out comes the book of songs, and I'm next to pick one. I quickly leafed through, trying to find something in English. Finally I settled on a Queen song, "I Want to Break Free." I am no wizard when it comes to lyrics or establishing a consistent key in any song, so the first song came out like nails on a chalkboard. Eventually, I got better, though, and I ended up mixing in quite well with the rest of the group.
With the other family, we had dinner that night in the house. There were meat, potatoes and these little pieces of toasted corn that I mistook for peanuts at first. Safe to say, the first time I popped a tostado into my mouth, I made a rather awkward face. It's not that they tasted bad, just that I expected to have to crunch a little more. Regardless, it was a fun night, and I went to sleep again late, very tired from a full day of activities.
This concludes my write-ups on the wonderful weekend that was Ecuador. Sunday was uneventful, aside from eating breakfast and lunch about 45 minutes apart and getting to the airport by 1:30. It was a true joy to spend a long weekend with Jenny, Vinny and their family, and I look forward to traveling back to Ecuador in the future. It's always exciting to see new places (in this case, new countries!), and I hope my travels in Latin America continue to be exciting as I move towards the end of the semester.
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