We caught a bus to Otavalo at 7h30 from Quito bus station (=terminal terrestre). From 5am there are buses every 10min. You can buy your ticket at one of the numerous companies small windows and then pay $0.20 to access the platform...we soon understood why we were the only passengers in the bus when we left the bus station, Ecuadorians wait for the bus outside the station to avoid paying those $0.20. For the next 30min the bus stopped anywhere along the road to pick up passengers. The controller of the bus was next to the open doors screaming "Otavalo, Otavalo" trying to fill up the bus. When the bus stops people come in to the bus and try to sell water, sodas, crisps, newspapers, etc. When we finally left Quito and stopped stopping all the time our driver really enjoyed racing on the motorway which takes you to Otavalo through the Andes..this bus trip was a very interesting experience. 2h30 later we arrived at the lively bus station of Otavalo where there is no place to leave your luggages. We left them at the first hotel we found for $2. Shopping time! Otavalo is very famous for its market, the biggest one being on Saturday when all the Otavalo Indians come to sell their products, but every other day of the week you have a small market...which is not that small, we spent a couple of hours buying lots of souvenirs trying out our negotiating skills! All the sellers are dressed with the typical clothes of the Indians Otavalo which are beautiful: the women wear blue skirts opened on the side which let see the white skirts they have bellow and white tops beautifully decorated, they also wear a blue fabric on their head and very nice necklaces. Again the rain stopped us around 3pm but we had already bought so much that it was kind of a good thing. So we caught a bus to Cotacachi where we wanted to spend the night. There are busses departing every 15min. Cotachi is a small village 25min from Otavalo famous for its shops selling all sorts of leather products. Also from this village you can go to visit the lake Cuicocha. In Cotacachi we found the hotel quite expensive and opted for the cheapest one ($8pppn) which ended up being very noisy, we hardly managed to sleep.
