Otavalo, Lago Quicocha, y los Muchachos Trabadores

Aislinn, Phil, and I on our Lago Cuicocha Hike

I am already slipping on my blogging! Those of you who care to read, please start bugging me to keep me accountable. Anyway, here are some highlights from last weekend’s trip to Otavalo. If you have no idea what Otavalo is all about (I didn’t until a week ago), I suggest you google it, because my pictures simply do not do the place justice.

1. Where’s Jan and her “swingset fund” when you need it?

This is just one booth in the market. It can't come close to capturing the entire place.

Unless you are in my immediate family, you probably do not understand this reference. The “swingset fund” refers to the money my mother started saving back when we were wee ones because she deemed it absolutely necessary that we have a swingset in our backyard. From then on, any money that Jan chose to lavish on us O’Leary kids was “fondly” referred to by my dad as the “swingset fund.” Suffice it to say that if I wanted to, I could have spent enough money at the markets in Otavalo last weekend to build swingsets for every single Ecuadorian child. THAT is how AMAZING these markets were! I simply have never witnessed such incredible markets in my life. We took a $2 bus ride to Otavalo early Saturday morning and arrived to rows upon rows upon rows of amazing artisan craftsmanship. Acapulco sweaters, beautiful, detailed paintings, hand-made pottery, embroidered bags, funky jewelry, fresh foods, and much, much more lined the streets of this humble Ecuadorian town that boasts a large indigenous population and is famous for its markets, which are open daily. We basically spent the whole day wandering throughout the markets, trying to barter with the vendors (another reason why I could have used Jan and her New York sass), and taking in the incredible craftsmanship. Despite my talk of buying out the markets, I was actually quite self-controlled and only purchased one item for myself—a pair of socially-acceptable pajama pants that are commonly worn by Ecuadorians, which I proceeded to wear out to dinner that night!

2. American Gringos—Keeping stereotypes alive since . . . forever . . .

Aislinn, Garrett, Phil, and I decided to spend the night in Otavalo while the others returned to Quito. After wandering around for a bit, we stumbled upon a hole-in-the-wall pizza place. Two weeks into our stay in Ecuador, we decided it was finally time to abandon our pretenses of experiencing culture, and grub on some pizza. We were pretty hungry, so we decided, why not split a large pizza between the four of us? A typical pizza comes with 8 slices, so 2 slices per person. Right? We went ahead an ordered our “family” pie. Our waitress told us that the pizza came with 8 sodas. No problem, we thought. Those cups look pretty small! Well, when the pizza came, not only was it so big that it needed its own table, but it also probably could have fed the entire village. We enjoyed some chuckles, and were joined by the Ecuadorians who sat at neighboring tables. I would love to say that we tried our best but simply couldn’t finish it. But no, we crushed the entire pizza within 20 minutes, keeping those stereotypes of fat Americans alive.

3. Hiking with bulls

It’s a good thing we ate all of that pizza, because we needed some hearty sustenance for the next day’s hike! Early Sunday morning the 4 of us headed to Quicocha Lake for what we thought would be a leisurely stroll. Lago Quicocha formed when a volcano erupted and left a giant crater in the ground. Then, it snowed and when the snow melted, the lake formed. It is pretty wide in diameter and the hike was simply beautiful. Despite our hopes of a nice little walk, the hike actually ended up being quite rigorous. When we were nearing the end, 4 hours later, the trail suddenly ended and we found ourselves on a backcountry dirt road. The views from the road were beautiful, but the cow droppings and bulls that we encountered were not so beautiful. Literally, we walked right past groups of cows. Finally, a cab passed us by and we were able to get back to Otavalo a little tired, but otherwise unscarred.

4. Kids can really steal your heart, especially Ecuadorian kids

For those of you ND ’08 readers, you might remember Laura Bradley, who graduated with us. Laura and I are acquaintances from ND and when I realized I was coming to Quito, I e-mailed her. She’s been volunteering here since we graduated and is now a fully-integrated, Spanish-speaking gringa. Since I arrived here Laura and I have been trying to meet up and we finally got some time to catch up on Thursday night, which was fantastic. The next morning, Greg, Phil, and I met Laura at “El Centro del Muchacho Trabador,” or “The Working Boys Center.” Here in Quito, it is very common to see young kids selling cigarettes, gum, candy, etc. on foot and during all hours of the day and night. It’s actually quite difficult to witness but it is common for these street kids to be sort of “ordered” around by an adult to whom they have to give all of the money they earn on the streets. Most kids who sell things on the streets can never escape this lifestyle. The Working Boys Center, where Laura works, has been around for a long time and successfully helps kids who work on the streets escape poverty. The center actively recruits on the streets, provides some meals for the kids, offers school, and requires that the parents of the kids who are involved in the center are actively involved. It really seems like a fabulous organization, and if you want to read up more on it, you can visit the website: http://www.workingboyscenter.org/

So the long and short of it is that I got to interact with these kids on Friday and I immediately fell in love with all of them. The minute we entered the center, we were greeted by a hoard of kids who ran up to us, hugging us, introducing themselves, and wanting to hang out with us. One little girl took my hand and proudly gave me a tour of the center. Then the kids taught us every single game Ecuadorian children play; cultural variations of London Bridges, David and Goliath, etc. Imagine a group of adorable Ecuadorians chanting in Spanish as three gringos try to keep up. After hanging out with the kids at the center for a while, we went with them to a rooftop of a nearby building which offered a beautiful view of some of the surrounding mountains. Some of the kids at the center had been practicing for most of the summer for a dance recital, so we went to watch them on top of this roof. It was really pretty surreal. The kids were all dressed in white dancing to the Ecuadorian version of Enya. One little boy from the center sat next to me the entire time, clinging on to my arm and smiling at me. I was astounded by how polite, hospitable, well-behaved, and genuinely happy all of the kids seemed. One of them bought an ice cream and insisted that I have part of it. Though these kids have nothing, they seem to have a lot more right than I do at times. They all asked when we would be coming back and seemed genuinely excited to have some new friends. I had such a great time and plan on visiting the center at least once a week, if not more, for my remaining weeks.

That’s all for now, though I have some updates about this past weekend’s epic hike coming soon. Hope everyone is doing well!

Me, sporting my Ecuadorian pajama pants, and our GINOURMOUS pizza.