Day Two- Otovalo

Day two was a little bit of a switch from the jam-packed day one. We started off the day with and early morning two hour bus ride two a slightly impoverished town called Otovalo. This is where we could finally put our photography techniques to the test. We were set in one of the largest markets in the world, where we got to shop and take pictures. Our goal was to find a common theme to take a picture, like bright colors, or kids, or workers, which was mine. Another goal we had was to catch three pictures of the elements of art. These are lines, color, shape, space, value, and texture. Picture taking plus shopping, really made the ideal combo for me since those are probably my two favorite things. The most capturing element of the day however, was the culture and the way of the natives. From little kids, mothers, teenagers, and old citizens, we got an idea of the culture as a whole. From time to time we would come across extremely decrepit old women, begging for money. They were very nice, but we were not supposed to interact sadly. Our journey continued as we passed by the local food market, where things got a little graphic. We would stumble upon fresh bloody animal meat, and animal carcasses. Fruits were impossible to miss and vegetables just the same. I got a unique taste of lychee, this unique little fruit. Now this throws me on the path of the food. I have tried quite the variety of exotic, bizarre foods. Today i tried a little piece of goats blood with one of our leaders, taylor. Yum! We all got to dig in and knock ourselves out with a little organ soup, well thats what we like to call it, and some beef with yuca, most likely a derivative of the potato. The thing about our stay in Quito that really gets me is the way the general people conduct their lives. People crowd the streets walking from store to store as if the whole town were a market. Venders would walk around with their goods and try to persuade people to buy their wares.  At night music would fill the air and horns would sound, since honking is apparently a general popular thing to do.