Otavalo Markets

If you’re going to Ecuador, either alone or with a tour, one of your destinations is sure to be Otavalo either for the world famous market or the Fiesta del Yamor celebrated early in September.

Located within easy driving distance two hours north of Quito, many day trips are available, but it’s better to allow several days to see not only the famous market in Otavalo, but to visit the nearby villages, where villages follow an ancient craft and supply many of the textiles sold in their own markets as well as in Otavalo. The spring-like climate makes this an all-season destination, but the warmest months are July to September.

The busiest market day is Saturday, but the markets in Otavalo are open every day. If you get up very early, you can experience an all day market experience beginning with the animal market. You can wander from market to market and buy a meal from a vendor, wander the food and produce market, and consider the arts, crafts and textiles before a purchase from the artisan market.

Mountain of Rugs, Otavalo Markets

The advantage to staying overnight before the market is getting there before tour groups arrive and prices tend to go up. Whenever you go, do bargain. It’s expected and once you get the hang of it, fun. If you’re not sure you can dicker over the price, rehearse your technique ahead of time. Practice making disbelieving faces in front of the mirror, walking away and rejecting the first several prices. You might find a better buy down one of the side streets away from Poncho Plaza, where the main artisan market is. Look for Otavalo embroidered shirts, carved wooden parrots or textiles and tapestries.

Ecuadorian Textiles are world famous for their quality and history. The history of the textiles goes back to Spanish colonial days when land around Quito was granted to various people, including one Rodrigo de Salazar who had the grant at Otavalo. He set up a weaving workshop, using the Otavaleño Indians, already skilled weavers, as the workforce. Over the years, with imported new techniques and tools from Spain, the weavers at Otavalo supplied most of the textiles used throughout South America. The downside of this economic success was that the Otavaleños were sometimes forced to labour at the looms in a system called Obraje. You can see some of the techniques in the demonstrations at the Obraje Weaving Museum.

Otavaleños wear clothing distinctive to their area. Embroidered blouses, beaded necklaces and skirts for women, while men wear their long hair in braids and wear white trousers, ponchos and sandals.

Gentle Giants

BAHIA DE LOS ANGELES, Mexico — Everyone got excited when the 20-foot-shark, inches below the surface of the water, started circling slowly under our little fiberglass boat. What to do? Get in the water, of course

This is one of the few places in the world where non-predatory whale sharks congregate predictably.
Anyone who saw a “Sharks of the World” poster as a youngster surely felt the mystique of the whale shark, the largest shark in the world and biggest fish in the sea. Lurking behind the other shark species — bigger, even, than the mighty great white — the enormous size and peculiar spots of the whale shark stood out.

The Sea of Cortez, a two-hour flight south of San Diego, is one of the few places in the world where whale sharks congregate predictably. They start showing up in summer, with peak season for whale shark-watching from the start of September through the end of October.

Whale sharks grow up to 40 feet but have very small teeth and aren’t predatory. That means they won’t try to eat you. Gentle giants, they gather each fall at Bahia de los Angeles — almost halfway down the Baja Peninsula on the Sea of Cortez — to filter-feed on microscopic organisms called plankton.

The sharks swim slowly near the surface, keeping their large mouths open to gorge on the clouds of plankton that colour the water jade that time of year.

The Portland, Ore.-based nonprofit is deciphering the migration patterns of whale sharks. To do that, the group collects and catalogs underwater photographs of whale sharks taken by divers and snorkelers.

“Tourism definitely helps with the conservation, because it’s only through large-scale data collection that we can get a picture of the species,” Holmberg said.

The Mexican government also seems concerned about whale sharks. Chasing or herding sharks isn’t allowed. No more than three people per boat may be in the water at any time. Touching sharks is a no-no.

Whale sharks have recently been in the news because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, with some seen swimming near and through the oil in the Gulf of Mexico. But the Sea of Cortez population is off the west coast of Mexico, while the Gulf waters are well east of Mexico.

Best of all is the scenery and wildlife. The desert landscape roughened by volcanic rock and 30-foot cardon cactus tumbles unimpeded into the ocean from nearby mountain tops. Cliffs that seem about to crumble into the water at any moment host crowds of pelicans and boobys while osprey and frigate birds circle above.

And there is nothing like the experience of floating still next to a creature many times your size, hearing the soft swish of water and wondering what this mellow fish might be thinking with its beady eye watching you.

The Throne

Archaeologists have found a thousand-year-old “mythical” temple complex under the windswept dunes of north-western Peru.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the discovery of the complex, excavated near the city of Chiclayo between 2006 and late 2009, has injected a dose of reality into the legend of Naylamp, the god who supposedly founded the pre-Inca Lambayeque civilisation in the eighth century A.D, following the collapse of the Moche civilization.

That’s because evidence at the Chotuna-Chornancap archaeological site indicates the temple complex may have belonged to people claiming to have descended from Naylamp-suggesting for the first time that these supposed descendants existed in the flesh.

“The creation of the building matches in time with the legend’s emergence,” said dig leader La Torre.

Also, in Lambayeque folklore “only in the Naylamp legend (is) a throne … used by high-ranking characters to reinforce power and authority,” he added.

According to legend, after the Moche civilisation had collapsed in north-western Peru, Naylamp arrived from the ocean with a huge fleet of rafts and warriors to begin a new empire.

The most important discovery in the thousand-year-old Lambayeque temple in Peru was the throne, thought to have been used by Naylamp’s supposed descendants.

From this perch, a ruler would impose and reinforce his political, religious, and military power.

The small recess in front of the throne was used for offerings, according to archaeologists.

Ruins of Temple

The presence of a throne-used only by the god Naylamp in Lambayeque folklore-and other indicators in the newfound temple, such as an adjacent room for religious ceremonies, suggest that the Lambayeque people viewed their rulers, thought to be Naylamp’s descendants, as semi-divine figures.