Update

Hello all... We had a wonderful if rainy day at the waterfall in Banos and are now off to the amazon jungle lodge.  We have had Internet issues in banos and will have none in the jungle so please look for updates Monday night!!

-maggio

Afternoon of Day 4

After a wonderful lunch the group headed towards the market square. At the local market in Otavalo, there were different clothes, food, toys and jewelry. There were tons of locally produced products everywhere! As we walked through the market, there were stalls of merchandise made with alpaca wool, such as the teddy bears or scarves. Some tables had bright shiny jewelry or tiny glassy statues.  Ecuadorian ladies dressed in traditional indigenous clothes sat under the shade by their tables, asking us to buy their products with big welcoming smiles on their faces.  We spent our free time bargaining for discounts in the market, and almost everyone came back with some treats!

     Later after we came back from the market we had 2 hours to rejuvenate before Maria Virginia Farinango and her family came. Maria is the co-author of the book The Queen of the Water, a novel based on her life. When they arrived Maria shared her harsh early life. She was given essentially given away by her parents to a family at the age of 6.  She worked a care giver for their children, cook, and maid. She was not paid, denied a formal education and was abused both mentally and physically.  Not only did she survive these circumstances, but she was able to receive a full education and is now studying psychology. She discussed how at first she was ashamed to be indigenous, but later came to realize that there was nothing in her history or her heritage to be ashamed of! She showed us multiple landmark pictures of her life, such as the schools she went too. She stated her favorite quote and the motto by which she lived in order to change the course of her life: “Querer es poder”  which with translation means “To want is to be able to”

     After Senora Farinango presented, her husband played Andean music. He used many different Andean flutes. After dinner, we all took a group picture and said good bye to them. Thank you Maria Farinango and her family!   

Morning of Day 4

After our first night in Otavalo, we headed out to the city early in the morning and hit the local markets, led by one of the dancers from last night’s performance. Some stores were outdoors selling all sorts of fruits and vegetables, including localities, but the biggest set of markets were under an expansive roof. The space was shared among fish, meat, vegetable, and spice sellers. When we left these markets we continued through the Otavalo streets and eventually arrived at the home of the dancer, whose family’s specialty is making ponchos. They welcomed us graciously and were happy to teach us the process of making a poncho. Here is a quick summary:

First, the wool is pulled and softened by hand so that it can be ready to spin. It is then attached to a spinning machine and rolled and pulled by hand until it is tightened into the yarn we see in stores. Then it is tied into a bunch so that it can be prepared for dying. There are all sorts of colors available, including red, blue, and green. When the yarn is dyed, it is spun over a cone-shaped instrument so that it can be gathered into a spool. The next step is to take two of these spools and once again using the spinning machine twist them together to create a stronger, thicker yarn. This is the yarn that is used to make the poncho on special weaving machines. The students got to try a few steps of this process, including weaving, which was done on a machine over 500 years old!

After this extensive tour, the family was kind enough to give us each a woven scarf. They also treated us to a local juice, which was homemade. One of the members then lead us not far from the home to an open green space in the middle of the city, which had a river, lots of plants and llamas as well as goats roaming around. The place was previously a garbage dump, but the family bought it, cleaned it up, and planted grass and flowers. It was a really beautiful piece of land. After this we said a final goodbye and headed back to the hotel for lunch.