Otavalo, and why Saturday matters
Two hours north of Quito there is a market that has been running, in one form or another, since before the Spanish arrived. It opens every day. On Saturday it becomes something else entirely — it stops fitting in its square and takes over the town.
The short version
- Saturday is the big day; Wednesday is a respectable second. Every other day it is a normal, smaller market.
- Arrive by nine. Vendors start packing up in the early afternoon, and tour buses land at ten.
- Otavalo sits at 2,530 m — lower than Quito. Unlike Cotopaxi, this works on your first or second day.
- The bus from Carcelén costs a couple of dollars and runs every fifteen minutes.
- Bring small bills. Nobody in a market can change a twenty.
What Otavalo actually is
It is easy to read "indigenous market" and picture something arranged for visitors. Otavalo is close to the opposite.
The Kichwa Otavalo have been weavers and traders for centuries, and they are among the most commercially successful indigenous peoples in Latin America. Otavaleño merchants sell their textiles in Bogotá, Madrid, Amsterdam and New York; you have probably walked past one of their stalls in a European city without knowing where it came from. The market you are visiting is the centre of that trade, not a performance of it.
You will notice it in small ways. The vendors are unhurried and unpushy compared with tourist markets elsewhere. Many are wearing the clothes they are selling — white trousers and dark ponchos for the men, embroidered blouses and long braids for the women — because it is what they wear, not a costume. And a good half of the commerce happening around you has nothing to do with tourists at all.
Saturday, and the other six days
The Plaza de los Ponchos, also called Plaza Centenario, has stalls every day of the week. If you turn up on a Tuesday you will find plenty to buy, fewer people, and a calmer experience. That is a perfectly good visit.
But on Saturday the market outgrows the square. Stalls fill the surrounding streets and much of the town centre becomes one continuous open-air market, with vendors coming in from the whole province. Wednesday is the second market day and a decent compromise if your dates are fixed.
There is also an animal market in the early hours of Saturday morning — livestock changing hands between farmers, starting before dawn and finished by mid-morning. It is not a tourist attraction and it is not for everyone, but it is the most genuinely local thing happening in Otavalo that day. Its location has moved over the years; ask when you arrive.
The timing problem
Most day tours from Quito reach Otavalo around ten in the morning. That is late.
The market is at its fullest and best between about eight and eleven. By early afternoon a good number of vendors have made their money and are packing up, and the visitors who arrived at ten are shopping the leftovers alongside everyone else who arrived at ten.
Leave Quito by seven. If you are going independently that is easy. If you are booking a tour, ask what time it actually arrives before you book, not after.
What the day looks like
- 06:45Leave Quito. Roughly two hours north on the Panamericana.
- 09:00Plaza de los Ponchos at its best. Walk the whole thing once before buying anything.
- 11:00The food market behind the plaza — where people from the town actually shop. Fruit you have never seen and lunch for two dollars.
- 12:30Buy the things you decided on at nine.
- 13:30Peguche waterfall, ten minutes away, or Cotacachi for leather.
- 15:00Cuicocha, a crater lake at 3,100 m, if the day is long enough.
- 18:00Back in Quito.
Getting there
- Public bus — from the Carcelén terminal in northern Quito, departures every fifteen minutes or so from early morning, around two and a half dollars, two to two and a half hours. Otavalo's terminal is about a kilometre from the plaza: fifteen minutes on foot or a two-dollar taxi.
- Organised day tour — no logistics, usually includes Cuicocha or Cotacachi, and generally arrives later than is ideal.
- Private car — the flexible option, and the only one that gets you there at eight and back whenever you like. Sensible if there are three or four of you.
The road is good. The scenery on the way — Lago San Pablo under the Imbabura volcano — is worth the window seat.
Bargaining, honestly
Some negotiation is normal and expected here. Nobody will be offended if you make an offer, and the first price is rarely the last price.
But we would ask you to keep some perspective. A hand-woven blanket that took someone days on a backstrap loom is being sold for less than you would pay for lunch at home. Grinding a vendor down over a dollar is not skilled travelling; it is a small unkindness to someone who has less than you, and it is very obvious to everyone watching.
A reasonable approach: ask the price, make one polite counter-offer, and accept the answer. If you are buying several things from the same stall, ask for a price for the lot — that is where a real discount lives. Pay cash, in small bills, and say thank you properly.
What is worth buying
- Wool and alpaca — blankets, ponchos, scarves, jumpers. The best of it is genuinely fine and the prices will surprise you.
- Textiles and tapestries, particularly anything with hand-woven detail rather than machine edging.
- Tagua, the "vegetable ivory" nut carved into jewellery and small pieces — light, distinctive, and hard to find elsewhere.
- Leather, though for that it is worth the fifteen-minute detour to Cotacachi, which does nothing else.
- Hats, bags and hammocks, if you have the luggage allowance. You probably do not, if the Galápagos are next.
What to look at more carefully: a proportion of the cheaper knitwear is machine-made and imported, and it sits alongside the handmade work at similar prices. Feel the weight, look at the reverse of the fabric, and if you care, ask who made it. People are usually straightforward about the answer.
Beyond the plaza
Most visitors see one square and go home. Half an hour in any direction:
- The food market behind the plaza — the one the town actually uses, and the best lunch in Otavalo.
- Peguche waterfall — ten minutes away, a short walk through eucalyptus, a sacred site for the Kichwa.
- Cuicocha — a crater lake at 3,100 m with a rim walk. Note the altitude if you have just arrived.
- Cotacachi — a whole town of leather workshops.
- Parque Cóndor — a rescue centre for Andean condors and raptors, with flight demonstrations.
Does it fit your stopover?
- Two nights, arriving Friday — yes, and it is the best possible use of a Saturday.
- Two nights, not over a weekend — go on Wednesday if that is your day, otherwise consider whether four hours of driving is what you want from a short stay.
- Three nights — comfortably, and unlike Cotopaxi it can go on day one or two, because Otavalo is lower than Quito.
- Coming back from the Galápagos with a Saturday — an excellent last day, and the right moment to buy the things you did not want to carry to the islands.
That last point is worth repeating: shop on the way out, not on the way in. Baggage allowances to the Galápagos are tighter than your international ticket, and a hammock is not what you want in your bag at the biosecurity inspection.
Practical notes
- Cash, in ones and fives. Card payment is rare and nobody can break a twenty at eight in the morning.
- Big market days draw pickpockets, as anywhere. Bag in front, phone in pocket — see our honest guide to safety.
- Ask before photographing people. Most will say yes. Some will not, and that is their right.
- Weather. Warm sun and cold wind in the same hour. Layers, and sunscreen.
- Bring your own bag. You will buy more than you planned.
What we do here
We book Otavalo trips at reception, and we will tell you which day of the week you have actually got and whether it is worth going. We can arrange a private car for an early start, which is the difference between the market at nine and the market at eleven. And we store luggage, so anything you buy on the way out does not have to go to the islands with you.
Tell us which day you land
Nine rooms in a restored 1914 house in San Blas. Book direct for our lowest rate — and if your dates can flex by a day to catch a Saturday in Otavalo, say so and we will help you plan around it.
See our best dealsTake this with you
Useful in the market itself, where you will want the list of what to look for.
