The early morning Otavalo Animal Markets

With the animal market’s starting at 6am on a Saturday morning and finishing at 10am I woke up at the ungodly hour of 4am with a fellow traveler, Laura who I met at the hostel and we headed to the northern bus terminal “Carcelen” and got on a 2 hour local bus for only $2 USD and headed for the town of Otavalo.

Pig that had just been bought being taken home

Upon entering the animal market it felt like I had been teleported into this surreal new world. There were sounds of squealing pigs being reluctantly being taken home by their new owners. People walking around with hessian bags full of guinea pigs and chicken being carried by their legs.

Guinea Pigs and rabbits waiting to be sold

As I navigated my way around the market attempting to avoid the occasional pile of animal excrement I came across so many different types of animals being sold off. Some as food and others as pets.

so cute and so fluffy

Being an animal lover it made me a bit sad seeing how the animals were treated. Especially when I got to the part of the market that had some puppies in a box and some little kittens waiting in a cage for a home.

Cage of kittens

After an hour at the animal markets my friend and I decided to head into the center of Otavalo for the main handicraft markets, which is one of the biggest markets in all of South America. Here I bought a awesome backpack and that adventurer hat that you see me wearing in so many of my photos.

Guinea Pig getting a pat

All in all It was a very interesting day. The animal markets by far were the highlight of the day and were definitely worth the early morning wake up to see. It was a very unique experience and I would recommend it to anyone who find themselves in Quito.

Otavalo handicrafts market

Next up in my “day trips to do from Quito” series I talk about visiting Mitad Del Mundo (The middle of the earth)