We spent our last week and a half in Ecuador staying in the small Andean village of Pucara, about 20 minutes outside of Otavalo.
When making the reservation for a little casitia on www.airbnb.com I was hesitant about booking nine nights. What would we do there for that long? Most tourists simply visit Otavalo’s Saturday Craft Market and move on. Would the kids be bord? The other option of splitting the nine nights between two destination just seemed to be asking for "travel burnout”. So I clicked the "book it” button and hoped we would simply get into the flow of the area once we were there.
Our Casita for 9 nights.
View from the casita overlooking the barn and the chicken coop with Imbabura Volcano in the background.
And luckily that is exactly what happened.
It seemed that the leisurely pace created from not feeling required to go exploring every day let us all relax and things came easier. Instead of me insisting that the kids write in their journals, they asked if it was ok to write in their journal for a second time in a day. Math work got done easily and free play seemed to just flow, fitting in around our excursions to explore the diverse region.
It seemed that the leisurely pace created from not feeling required to go exploring every day let us all relax and things came easier. Instead of me insisting that the kids write in their journals, they asked if it was ok to write in their journal for a second time in a day. Math work got done easily and free play seemed to just flow, fitting in around our excursions to explore the diverse region.
Journal writing, while sporting their Ecuador football Jerseys.
Making a kite and flying it local style
The most creative play: building their own create car. They had seen local kids playing on something similar.
Kids loving helping Leonel harvest Organic quinoa.
Of course the farm animals were hours of entertainment.
Our hosts, Katty (Ecuadorian) and Leonel (Swiss) along with their lovely 2 year old daughter Ailyn were extremely friendly, helpful, and a great source of of information about the local area and Ecuador in general. Katty is a Spanish teacher so it worked out perfectly to hire her for 2 hours every morning to jumpstart the kids Spanish. It also gave Kiko and I something hard to come by in the last month, time to ourselves. After a month of being with the kids 24/7, I appreciated a little time just the two of us. One morning, while the kids played games in Spanish, we just walked around Pucara, observing the daily activities.
An old woman walks back from the river with her laundry.
Family working in the fields together.
Interspersed with the free time, were a number of family outings, each diverse and memorable. We used a combination of transport, either joining our hosts if they were heading out, hiring our hosts as a “taxi” to get to more remote areas, or using the local buses that connect all the nearby villages and towns.
Our bus stop, right up the hill from the casita.
Otavalo’s famous Saturday craft market, called the Mercado Artesanal at the Plaza de Pancho, overflows with handicrafts from far and wide, some more authentic then others. Both travelers and local villagers, many wearing the traditional dress of their individual communities, descend into Otavalo on market day. For me this is the main draw; great people watching abounds.
  These local women seems intrigued by this collection of belts for sale. |  Selling beans |
My favorite attraction is just a few blocks away, at the Animal Market, which fills with locals looking to either sell or buy an animal. There are llamas, pigs, dogs, cats, bunnies, guinea pigs, cows, horses, and chickens. For me it is an overload of the senses, in a great way. My eyes, and camera lens, dart between the exotic clothing and jewelry, the unique social interactions, and the interesting animals for sale. For the kids they couldn’t decide which animal was cuter or which one they would buy if they could send it back to Kauai.
Haggling for chickens.
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One of the highlights of our visit was the festivities of Inti Raymi, a month long celebration beginning on the day of the summer solstice. I had read a little about it before our arrival but had no idea what to expect. This Indigenous ceremony of the Andes, which gives thanks for the Earth and Sun, and cleanses the spirt, dates back to pre-inca times. We had the special treat of being able to accompany Katty and her family to one of the festivities on Sunday in rural area outside of Cotacatchi town.
All the local communities come to participate in and view the festivities.
Cerimonial offering of live chickens, which are incorporated into the dances.
Another day we took a side trip to visit a sacred tree, El Lechero, said to be over 400 years old.
We toured a woman’s craft co-op, Huarmi Maki, which works to perpetuate and teach the customs and crafts of the local Indigenous people.
Zuki learns one of the many useful ways to wear this cloth as a hat.
And all the while the World Cup continued and the Ecuadorians’ enthusiasm was contagious, so we watched games over lunch or we would pop our heads in open doors to catch the score, while wandering through towns.
And every afternoon we would come home again. The 9 nights flew by.
