Explore Otavalo, Ecuador: A Cultural Immersion with the Kichwa(2025)

Join The Design Tourist, Karen LeBlanc, as the award-winning travel journalist explores Otavalo, Ecuador, on a Hero’s Journey of cultural immersion with the Kichwa people—one of the largest Indigenous groups in the Andes. In this episode, Karen learns to weave on a backstrap loom, cooks ancestral recipes with a local chef, creates traditional dream catchers, and explores the spiritual symbolism behind Ecuadorian volcanoes and rituals. This journey is packed with rich experiences: shopping at South America's largest artisanal market, discovering Andean wind instruments, and visiting the "center of the world" at the Quitsato Solar Museum. Discover Ecuador beyond the guidebooks—through the art, music, cuisine, and ancestral wisdom of its people. Locations Featured: Otavalo, Peguche, Cayambe, San Pablo Lake, Quitsato Solar Museum Traditions: Weaving, Cooking, Music Making, Dream Catchers, Spiritual Rituals