Otavalo, Ecuador

I recently traveled to Quito, Ecuador to serve as a faculty member for a Truth With A Camera workshop. The Saturday before the workshop began, those of us who arrived early took a day-trip to Otavalo.

The small mostly indigenous town sits in a valley surrounded by the peaks of three volcanoes: Imbabura , Cotacachi and Mojanda. Otavalo is best known for its Saturday market in the Plaza de los Ponchos, but there’s also an open-air livestock exchange during the early part of the day.

We made the livestock exchange our first stop. It was only supposed to be a 10-minute-look-see, but there was just too much to at which to gawk. The scene would have made a PETA volunteer’s head explode on impact.

Small groups of pigs were left out in the open knotted together by a single rope that grew smaller as they individually twisted and turned. There were boxes upon boxes of live chicks packed like sardines. And the local puppy mills seemed to be in full production.

This was not the place to be if you happen to reside on the low end of the food chain.

The people watching was great. Many of the women were dressed in traditional garb: white embroidered blouses, with flared lace sleeves, and dark over skirts. Many of the men looked aged beyond their years as they haggled over roosters that were bound for the cock-fighting ring.

I’ve never been in this type of situation and admittedly I was too timid with my camera. It didn’t help my confidence any that I was shooed away by a couple of people and one old pig-man wanted to charge me for taking his picture.

If I ever return to Otavalo’s livestock market, I’ll shoot like it will be the last time I will ever see anything like it again.

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