The buzz is back

The market in Otavalo is rumoured to be one of the biggest indigenous markets in South America. People come from all over to get their fix - tourists barter alongside Quechua women from nearby mountain villages - and today we were no different. We got our shopping buzz back. For the first time in a long time, we bartered and we bought. And, damn it felt good.

The markets are on every day of the week but on Saturdays it quadruples in size, spilling into all the streets in and around the main plaza. You can buy anything here, including:

• brightly coloured woven blankets used by Quechua women to carry everything from children to rocks on construction sites.
• the hammocks that have rocked us to sleep on the Colombian beaches.
• horse hair bracelets (every girl needs one)
• bull tusks necklaces (every girl does not need one).

The locals come to stock up on cleaning products, traditional clothing, underwear and shoes, and everyone gets in on the copy DVD action. But the absolute highlight of any visit to the markets - for locals and tourists alike - has to be a good old 'chinwag' with the stall holders, whether its a 7-year-old boy looking after a stall for his parents or a whole family sipping tea behind their piles of rugs.