The next morning I checked out of my hostel once again, this time hopefully for the last time. The nice lady at the reception asked me if I had some Indian money as she had never had the opportunity to see it yet. I was carrying many Indian 10 Rupee notes which had caused me much embarrassment when getting into Cambodia, and I was happy to give one to the lady. Then I caught a bus to Otavalo, about 2 hours north of Quito.

Otavalo turned out to be a quiet peaceful town with narrow empty streets. I found a cheap room to stay, and a place near the town centre with free public wi-fi. This was exactly my idea of a place to relax, and I enjoyed my time over the next 2 days just walking around and using the free internet.

On Friday morning I called the Colombian consulate as instructed. They grilled me on the phone for a long time, maybe more than 20 minutes. I answered all their questions satisfactorily, and was given an account number into which to transfer 39 USD. One more step closer to getting to Colombia :)

On Saturday, I woke up late looking forward to yet another chilled-out day of walking around town, but I was in for a shock. I could barely recognise the town at all. It had been completely transformed overnight. It was now jam-packed with shops that had magically sprung up everywhere. The centre of town was now off-limits for all vehicles, and every street was full of shops selling everything from artistic creations to clothes to food. I was to later learn that this was the largest and most colourful artisan market in South America.

I had no intention of buying anything at all, but simply could not help myself. With all the additional things I now own, I don’t have enough place in my backpack. So besides my backpack and my daypack, I now have a third bag. The only way to get back to travelling with only two bags is by discarding some things :(

I don’t know why but I didn’t take a single picture in Otavalo, and now I regret it big time. I’ll just have to post some pictures found elsewhere.

The city of Otavalo with Volcano Imbabura in the background  

Walking through the artisan market  

A portion of the market  

Another view of the market