Gone are the throngs of tourists coming straight from Quito to get a glimpse of that Saturday market. As expected Otavalo transforms back to its more tranquil state. We left too but not after a brief bout with some mysterious stomach bug. I guess it’s nature’s reminder as we were a bit careless with our choices of street foods lately.
Once we take notice, its seems like well, safe food handling actually is non-existent on this part of the world(at least in Ecuador). I was buying chicken with fries the other day and the lady used a fork to put the chicken on my plate. I thought, good, but suddenly she put down the fork and proceed to use her bare hand to dump the fries on the plate. I guess the chicken was hot. Facepalm.
But that’s one reason I love traveling, you have to adapt to what’s in front of you. So next time, I’ll just order the chicken minus the fries to avoid witnessing something like that. Lol. Or perhaps get a soup instead. That’ll be horrible if you see them serving it with bare hands.
We left Otavalo with some residual effect of the stomach bug and assumed that it will take care of itself(it actually did).
-Dean
From Malchingui, we decided to hightail to Quito the next day instead of going to Piñan, our original goal.
As its been the case lately whenever we hit a big city, I went out the next morning to walk around Quito in search of a good cup of coffee and also to see the city at its busiest.
Our route:
Otavalo – Laguna Mojanda – Malchingui – Quito
You can view the tracks here.
