We woke up yesterday and had an exciting day of chocolate tasting ahead of us! We had breakfast and headed out to our first visit, which was to Yumbos right in the plaza. We had the opportunity to learn about the history of cacao and how they have come to source their chocolate. They had a great selection of chocolates and also allowed for us to taste both the raw cacao and the roasted cacao bean. This was definitely an interesting experience, and even though I did not love the taste of the pure bean, I can now say that I have tried it, which is most likely a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me.
After our amazing tasting, a group of us headed to a lunch spot called Sweeties, which was suggested to us by a local and was such an amazing spot to have our last lunch in Quito! We were served multiple courses for less than $5 each, including potato soup, jamaica juice, salad, plantain, and an amazing chicken that was to die for. I would definitely suggest this restaurant to anyone, and our service was excellent. We also met a very nice man from Argentina, who lived in London, and then moved to Ecuador and was so interested in our trip. As we were leaving the restaurant, he called us over and ripped an emblem off of his hat of the Ecuador flag so that we could have a memory of our stay here.
Then we boarded our bus to head to the second chocolate tour of the day. We visited Bios, which was a chocolate factory and we got to see the inner workings of the companies processes. We started out with some chocolate tastings while we learned about the history of how Bios came to be and how the owner took over the shop from his father and previously grandfather. He had such an interesting story and was definitely the highlight of my day! We then were able to enter the actual factory, where we were given the surprise of Dubai chocolate strawberry cups, which were so delicious. We ate our strawberries while touring the factory and learning about the process that Bios takes to prepare their chocolate bars and get them ready for sale. We were also able to learn how to wrap our own mini chocolate bars and take home what we wrapped! We definitely spent tons of money here… but what can I say when we have great chocolate with a great experience. And soon after, we boarded the bus again to take our 2.5 hour trip to Otavalo! We had dinner when we arrived and then arrived at our hostel to start our 3 night stay here in the beautiful city!
Now today, we woke up and had breakfast shortly before we headed out to go to the textiles market in the square of Otavalo. When we arrived, we were lucky enough to hear directly from two native, Kichwa-speaking people who taught us about the history, culture, and business-practices of the Kichwa people and how that differs from our customs. They gave us amazing insight before we went down to the market to see for ourselves. We spent many hours today walking around the market, as it is quite large with many many setups of different textile, jewelry, and other stores. I also spent a pretty penny, but I definitely think what I got was worth the price. Many stores we saw were family-run and making pieces right in front of us. We got to engage in negotiating for price, which is a standard in this type of environment and definitely broke me out of my shell during this trip.
Other than the market, which took up most of our day, we also had lunch and dinner, but most especially we had the opportunity to engage in a ceremony/celebration at our hostel before dinner. We were given a delicious indigenous drink (hot blackberry and pineapple juice) that is usually only prepared for holidays, such as the passing of a loved one. We got to hear live music, which was absolutely beautiful and we danced for a while to the music together and even learned some lessons on how to dance to the beat. This was a completely surreal feeling when we got to hear the musician play indigenous instruments and teach us about the music he was playing. We ended the night hanging out on the terrace (rooftop) of the hostel, which felt amazing after a long day of walking around Otavalo!
