After your pick-up from either your hotel or the airport in Quito, you will be driven north in an air-conditioned private vehicle to the Imbabura province. An English-speaking guide will accompany you on your tour. Head for Otavalo, located approximately 95 kilometres north of Quito. Located at 2530 meter above sea level we find the everlasting fertile, Province of Imbabura, these magical lands surrounded by lakes are cradle of artists, histories and living pre-Inca cultures.
We will visit Peguche, a picturesque and messy little town whose habitants are famous for their weaving abilities on hand made looms in vivid colours representing figures of the Andean Region.
At Peguche, the art of colouring wools have became a recreational game where traditions, norms and rules end up in an incredible blend of hammocks, textiles, sweaters, etc, that the community exhibits with proud and colour.
Together with the weaving industry, the community of Peguche, following with their ancestral traditions, is well known for the manufacture of wind instruments like the Sikus, Kenas and charangos, here we found the House of the Instruments whose walls bring us memories of the Andean music representing the song of nature, water and air. In the area, we also find the strong and artistic hands of the people of San Antonio. Art studios with wood, stone and ceramic sculptures that represents the Quito school of art that transmit us the spirit of the indigenous villages whom had kept this Spanish cultural manifestation within a lot of generations.
All this artistic towns, commercialize their art in the market, beyond a shopping tour this tour teach us the work, traditions and customs of our indigenous communities.
Overnight at one of country inns of the area.
Visit the artisans centres of Cotacachi, a town mainly dedicated to manufacture of fine leather goods. In the afternoon we will visit a flower plantation.
On our way back to Quito, we will stop at Calderon, a small town famous for its bread dough figures which are exported to Europe.