Farmer’s Market

We were told of a farmers market run by the expatriate community of Cotacachi (“kota-catchee”) where we might find all sorts of things we haven’t seen for a while, foods from home. 

After a gray rainy morning the sun came out during the 45 minute drive from the campground, we parked in the street and found ourselves magically transported to a farmers market you might find anywhere back home. 

Yes, but with chocolate chip cookies. 

Andrew, a Canadian married to an Ecuadorean brews craft beer so we bought a couple of bottles of his lighter offerings. 

And an Italian woman who spent the past fifty years opening ice cream stores around the world now sells limoncello in Ecuador. 

And we got some pierogis (Polish dumplings) for the freezer and an extraordinary Polish sausage. He was quite surprised when I mentioned Key West has a large Polish community. You may be surprised to learn there are six Polish families in this small town. 

I’ve started reading a book about the Spanish invasion of the Inca Empire and I find it not only interesting but easy to read which is lucky because we have arrived in the northern reaches of the Incan Empire.

And outside the market they had this statue staring down imperiously upon us. 

I’ve only just got to the part where Pizarro slaughters the Incas and catches their emperor so this character hasn’t appeared just yet. Luckily Wikipedia knows all about him:

Meanwhile Layne got waylaid by an elderly saleswoman with a bucket. 

And it turns out, strawberries. GANNET2 groans under the weight of our haul of fruit in this productive country. 

Rusty had a walk through the market but after a while he started looking for shade and plopping fish in it so I got the hint and brought him back to the van while intense shopping proceeded without him. 

Some brisket, pickles, breads and of all things sushi was for sale so we had that for lunch: 

The campground has a washer but no dryer so in light of the uncertain weather we sought out a do-it-yourself laundry in the town of Ibarra, with dryers which worked out very well. 

Clean and efficient we got our stuff done in less than two hours for five bucks with free WiFi. Score! 

Rusty enjoyed the cement floor and was not keen to rejoin the expedition…

The Finca (“farm” ) Sommerwind campground is around a lake about 15 minutes from the town of Ibarra. 

Hans the owner of Sommerwind is German and this lake ambiance has a Central European flavor to it, perhaps Switzerland on a slightly run down untidy day. 

Hans has lived in Ecuador for years with his wife who is from Ibarra and during Ecuador’s state of emergency has been helping overlanders drive into Ecuador. The government is trying to break the cartels which ship cocaine up the coast, and part of that plan  has tried to lock down the borders for overland travel. You have to present a clean criminal history to drive in but we don’t have such a document in the US so for foreigners Hans has worked out a deal for us with the tourism ministry. We mentioned Hans at the border, they checked his list and we got 90 days. 

He also lets overlanders park their vehicles for a dollar a day. Check them all out sitting waiting for owners to return. 

There are also cabins to overnight in at I think $22. To park an RV you get charged $6 a person with electricity included, a hot shower and a dump station and some views too. 

German beer, cakes and bread for sale along with a restaurant during the day. 

And Rusty likes the walks though not with the campground puppy because he’s a grumpy old dog.