Otavalo a short stopover before leaving Ecuador

After a week of surfing we left Montañita with a bad hangover, but with great memories. We took yet another overnight bus heading north. As the first stretch in Colombia is a bit dangerous we decided to stop over in Otavalo in the north of Ecuador to then travel this dangerous stretch during the day. Otavalo is famous for having what is considered the largest handcraft market in South America. Unfortunately this is only on Saturdays. Still there was loads of handicrafts stands everywhere. I managed to buy some cheap juggling balls. We had expected a very traditional village, but the place was actually considerable modern and even had some trendy bars, restaurants and shops (well trendy in Ecuadorian standard).

We were suppose to only stay one night and then head up to Colombia, but Laura had to hand in one of her assignments for school so we had to stay for another night. The first day I wandered around the streets a bit by myself. There were some interesting market stalls, but nothing really special. Great place to shop for souvenirs though.

The second day, after Laura handed in her assignment, we decided to go for an excursion. After a pretty hard climb we were out in the countryside. The nature was nothing special, but we went to visit a bird sanctuary that was pretty nice. Especially cool was the flight demonstration that they put on. The birds would fly and catch food thrown in the air. Sometimes they would fly away for a few minutes and come back in crazy speed and land on this buys hand. Laura got to hold the smallest bird that they had for a bit.
After the show we tried to walk some strange shortcut to this waterfall. However, the path was really difficult to follow and there were loads of crossroads. It was raining and it started to get dark so we were rushing down the steep mountain through this forest. Quite a mission, but luckily we Swedes are born with a GPS and we came out of the forest at the perfect spot. We missed the waterfall, but at least we did not have to sleep in a forest, though we were completely soaked when we got back to the hostel.

Laura againt the american eagle

White owl...remember Harry Potter?

Laura got to hold the small bird