Wow, what a weekend. We started out on Friday joing a group of 6 stduents and a professor from Creighton University in Nebraska. We traveld to gether to Otavalo, which is a small town of about 55,000 people north of Quito. This town is known for its artesan and open market that they have every Saturday. Once we got to Otavalo, we went to the Universidad de Otavalo. They were nice enough to give us a tour of their own museum of indigenous people. We had two students, one indigenous and one Ecuadorian, share with us traditional clothes, life, and customs. 
Then they took us to a beautiful waterfall named, La Cascada de Peguche. There just happened to be several buses there from public schools; thus we were joined by 300 kids running around.
William with Alexandra a traditional lady at Cascada de Peguche
We eventually made it to Cotacachi, which is a small city known for leather. They make leather goods and there are really nice and cheap jackets, bags, and saddles. We got dropped off at different homes of the local indigenous people. We were all very apprehensive since the homes were not located next to each other and in the same community. Half of us went to one community and then most of us went to Tunibamba. Our mode of transportation to and from the homes was a pickup truck. The two male professors got all of their rides in the back over bumpy, dirt, rock covered roads. The following pictures describe our homes and the local people.
Cotocachi is the city of leather near our indigenous communities
Our ride to homes
Indigenous Home
The Indigenous homes had all the comforts we could want. Our rooms were nice, clean, had two beds, a toilet and shower, and plenty of space. This was in comparison to how the indigenous people lived. They had one bathroom to share for a family of 3-9 and did not have the “niceness” of the bedding that we had. All the families cooked food that they had from their farms. For example, they picked fresh beans (all types), peas, lemon grass for tea, eggs from the hen house, and fruit from their trees. The only thing that they may have bought from the store was butter, sugar, and maybe some milk. They made all the food from scratch.
Traditional male dress for labor and relaxation
Traditional dress for ladies. Pageant Queens.
The indigenous dress is simple clothes for the male to work. The females wear two skirts, two belts, a blouse, s shawl, and a necklace. They wore these everywhere while doing everything. The gold necklaces represented the status of a family. Many of the wealthy indigenous people had all gold layered necklaces.
On Saturday we ventured to Otavalo market where we shopped and bargained for some of the local artisan items. This was a place filled with jewelry, food, clothes, wood work, and leather items. The market is always situtated in the center plaza, but on Saturday it expands about 4-5 blocks in all directions and many streets are closed to accommodate the artisan stands.
Anna and Allison shopping in the market
Relaxing where Simon Bolivar relaxed
Otavalo with volcano
We ate at a hacienda on Saturday. This was a hacienda that Simon Bolivar, the liberator of South America, frequented while traveling to and from Quito. We ended the day going to San Antonio de Ibarra which is a small town known for woodworking.
For most of us, we experienced the festival of the founding of Tunibamba. Friday night involved cutlutral dancers from all over the Andean mountains. Saturday afternoon and night were races, voting for pageant queens, singing, and dancing. All the girls had fun dancing and meeting the local people. Lauren, Anna, and Katie exceled at dancing with the indigenous folk!
Lauren with old indigneous dancer
Religous Procession
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