Cotacachi and Inti Rymi
To get to Cotocachi you need to catch a bus from Carcelen, north of Quito. The bus took 2 hours. The bus to Cotocacahi from Otovalo takes 20/25 mins. Stayed in hotel/hostel Mindala -clean hot water TV courtyard and roof terrace. Cotocachi is a very clean town and has two churches, a small market. Tenth of August is the main shopping street making Cotacachi is a shoppers paradise selling leather goods and it has nice restaurants too. It is a pretty town with two squares, palm trees and a river with clean cobbled streets with pale lemon houses. It generally rains around 4.30/5 and becomes cloudy so that there is no real view of Cotopaxi. It is an ex pat town and the ex pats are very happy here.
Many indigenous live here wearing embroidered blouses, gold necklaces in triplicate and long dark skirts similar to Otovalo. Men wear white hats with a broad brim and white pants.
Inti Rymi is celebrated by the men dressed as cowboys walking round the main square in groups. The walk gets faster and faster and the men start to brandish weapons wooden guns and in some cases real guns. the men get drunker and drunker almost running around the square. During the night the frenetic walking/ running around the square often turns into fights and there is bloodshed and normally a couple of deaths.
