The Spirit of Ecuador

October 18, 2010

It has been easy to foot it through Ecuador. Less things to worry about with the Bus.
Certainly a lot cheaper to travel with public buses, as the fuel is super expensive here. Occassionally an eyebrow is raised when Sky comes on the bus with me, but so far we have not had any problems. I do miss my bus, which enabled me to go wherever we wanted to go in the moment. Without it, I have to think and plan ahead or find myself needing to backtrack, because I saw something interesting along the way.
Some of the roads in Ecuador are so steep, I have my doubts, if Bluebird would even be able to make these grades.
Dropping into Quito was a bit of a shock. The city is humongues. It seemed almost impossible to locate myself on a city map within the old town, without asking for more directions on every other corner. The city does have some interesting sites to visit,
once you adjust to the altitude and can climb the steep streets. We did not while for long there, but headed out to Otavalo, to a more quiet and relaxed setting.
Otavalo is surrounded by 3 large Volcanoes reaching to 4.960 meters, whereas the town sits at 2550 meters. It is pretty quiet here during the week until Friday, when everything shifts into hyper activity. On the weekend the streets are filled with market stands of handcrafts, artesania and clothing. The town is very well known for its crafts and marketdays. Many tourists from Quito and beyond congregate onto Otavalo for this occassion. An animal market takes place every Saturday, where cows, pigs, chicken, rabbits, dogs, cats and whatever else being traded and hackled for.
The villagers from sourrounding areas come to buy, trade or sell their goods here and the food market is brimming with people. It is a phantastic time to watch people, to take in all the colorful traditional clothing, the local food and also an opportunity to make some pictures. For the most part, Quichuas do not like to be photographed by the tourists, which is understandable. Once you get to know someone or a family personally, they have no problems with that and always want a copy for themselves.
We have hiked all around the surrounding villages such as Peguche and it´s waterfall.
Visited the Park de Condors and even found the famous 1000 year old Pucura Lechero Tree. The trails are pretty steep, but it is easy to find your way and the views are amazing. I love all the foot travel and the people we get to meet this way.
One day I ran into a couple of Quichuas, who invited me on a trip, after we had shared some food and juice. They weren´t really clear about where we were going or when we would be back, nor did I ask at the time. So we just took off, rode a couple of buses for about 3 hours and arrived in a tiny village, called Rio Blanco, somewhere northwest of Otavalo. It turned out, we were visiting family members.
A simple, but big dinner was served for all. They had many questions about Alaska, my dog and my life. When they found out I was solo, there were many suggestions who in their family or their neighbors family I could marry. We laughed a lot. Later on we all settled down to listen to one of the brothers play flute, before turning in for the night. The next morning we hiked to a waterfall for bathing and then piled into a pick up truck for a local sightseeing tour for my benefit.
The village sits on the confluence of two rivers in a narrow valley at about 1600 meters.
Everything seemed to grow there. I saw Cotton plants, Tabacco, Pineapple, Banana and many different flower bushes. There was a fair presence of Afroecuadoran people, which I had already also noticed in Ibarra, a town just north of Otavalo. The surrounding area of Otavalo and the town itself is inhabitated by appx. 70% indigenous (Quichua). In the early afternoon we said our good-byes to the family, who heartedly invited me to come and visit again, and rode on buses back to Otavalo. Since then, my new friends, one or the other would call to find out if I wanted to go somewhere or hear some musicians. It has been great. We have hiked around Lake Cuicocha, visited some more villages and listened to local traditional bands.
There are no words to really discribe the sounds, sights and impressions. So many moments of beauty, of shared laughter with passing families, stepping under the crashing waterfall or sharing a snack with a few women and their children working in the field.
Now I have started my training with one of the Shaman in a nearby village and will be immersing myself in the Spirits of the Volcanoes.