Got to be a tourist this week which was fun! On Tuesday we went to Otavalo market. First all to get there we had a beautiful drive through the mountains. Up here we are in the middle of the Andes and they are breathtaking!

  Otavalo is a market run by some of the local indian tribes and it´s amazing!!! One of the Americans with us said Otavalo is in a book called "1,000 things to do before you die" and I can well believe it. The sellers are all in their traditional clothes which is lovely and everything they sell is hand-made. The colours are just fantastic-all the goods are rainbow coloured. The colours were so bright they seemed to glow. Not a big surprise but I ended up spending all my money including my money to pay for lunch! I am no good at bartering so I clung unto Ceci and dragged her round with me. I must have looked like such a tourist as I "ooohed" and "Aaahed" at everything and took pictures of all the pretty things ;)

   After Otavalo we went to lake Cuicocha which apperently means "Guineapig cove". I got hugely excited but sadly there were not hundreds of guinea-pigs having a swim in the lake as I´d hoped! (bitter dissappointment.) The lake is in a volcanoe crater. I´m told the lake is so deep that scientist haven´t yet found the bottom! After Cuicocha we went to Cotacahi which is a leather town. There they only sell leather. The shops were amazing; they had everything imaginable in leather-saddles, coats, boots, handbags, cigarette lighters, chairs and even books. I´m not a fan of leather but those gorgeous handbags were VERY tempting (it´s a good job I´d spent all my money.)

   Today I went to the local food market which was interesting. I did have a nasty experience though when we went to the chicken lady. I´d secretly been hoping that the meat would be already prepared and wrapped up but no such luck of course. She dragged a dead chicken out and chopped off it´s head. And when I say "chopped" I actually mean she sawed at it with a blunt knife. Then she broke the spine and ripped in half and pulled out the guts! By this time I was standing as far back as I politely could. I must have looked horriffied though because the women all looked at my face and laughed!

  The fruit&vegetable market was good though. They have so many fruit here! I haven´t even seen most of them and the dictionary doesn´t have a name for most of them. All I can say is they look weird but usually taste great:)