About Me
- Name: Well
- Location: Washington, DC, United States
I'm not good at journaling. But I do like my Mac. And I often have random bits of ideas float through my head that I wish I could pin down in a portable format. Hence, this blog: a place for outward commentary, and digital logging of things I might want to remember later.
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Friday, January 21, 2005
Otavalo
(CAPS ARE FOR THE BENEFIT OF PPL WHO PREFER TO SCAN;) )
Well last weekend our BCA group took a 2 hour trip north to the indigenous town of OTAVALO. It´s a really cool pueblo where 80% of the population is from the Quichua tribe and they still preserve many of their traditions, such as their dress, music, and crafts-- beautiful tapestries, paintings, jewelry, leather, woven or embroidered clothing, hammocks, etc etc... we drove up Friday and went to the open MARKET all Saturday morning. There were so many beautiful things everywhere I was dizzy! What a perfect marriage of consumerism/toursim and the preservation of an indigenous group´s way of life;).
In the afternoon we visited some neighboring pueblecitos and met Juan Carlos, an 80yo indigenous man who has been WEAVING since he was 7. He still cuts, softens, spins, dyes all his own wool, by hand, with the help of his wife. One of the scarves he showed us takes 3 days from start to finish, and one of the thick ponchos up to 3 months. We then had the option to buy a scarf, for $7-$10, or a poncho for around $150. It made me think about all the great deals I had gotten in the market earlier that day. We´ve been told that 80% of Ecuadorians are considered part of the economic lower-class; less than $3/day certainly doesn´t sound like a living wage.
Our next stop was a family´s house where they make all kinds of MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. The father and his oldest 3 sons (I think) were part of the first and most famous Andean musical group from Ecuador. His little girls, even the 3yo!, helped in the performance, shaking bunches of shells or drumming. There is a still a lot of racism/classism in Ecuador, as in prejudice against the indigenous groups (a nice legacy of the Spanish conquest), and it made me sad to think that these talented beautiful little girls could grow up to feel like they are worth less than everyone else in their country, especially those who look like me. But, identity philosophizing aside, for now they were just curious kids, happy to kick around a soccer ball with us foreigners and give Ruby high-fives.
To cap off the day, we drove out to a NATURE RESERVE, where some of Ecuador´s oldest and most oxigen-producing trees are located. Our guide called it ¨Los pulmones del mundo,¨or the lungs of the world. We walked along some scenic trails and stopped at the bottom of a WATERFALL to cool off. It was a pretty romantic place, and tho we didnt have time to, some people had climbed up to the very top of the falls. In a little cove of trees overlooking the cascading waters, some young lovers, seemingly far-removed from the tourists below but actually quite visible, completed the cinematic landscape by MAKING OUT above the river spray, lightly shrouded by the mist. Alicia, ever the voyeur, used her powerful digital zoom technology to snap a few pictures.
The RITE OF PASSAGE for the trip was the trek up La Mojanda. We rode a bus for an hour to a rural area surrounded by impressive mountains and expansive lagoons. We parked at the base of MOUNT MOJANDA and gazed intrepidly up at the looming peak. While we´re all more accustomed to the altitude by now, the first ten minutes of the climb about kilLed me. Not everyone planned to go all the way to the top, and I momentarily considered stopping halfway, but with the iron will of the mountaineer that I am, bravely pressed on. Two hours and some 2000FT later, we were above the clouds and at the top of the 14000FT MOUNTAIN! I was about 6th to reach the peak, and some 5 people later, Christine, the one with the backpack full of cookies, appeared over the ridge and was promptly mobbed by ravenous hikers. After our mini-feast, self-congratulations, reveling and picture-taking, we began the descent. While the way up was made easier by the sturdy grass I could use to grab onto with every steep step, the way down was complicated by the muddyness. So, following the lead of our faithful leader Pablo, I opted to use the tall grass to my advantage again, and slid most of the way down on my butt, using the stalks to steer. Thus I made it down with little stress to my knees, but with a huge whole in the rear of my pants--quite cute. No, no one got a picture.
That was more or less the extent of our first group excursion. By the time we made it home I was completely exhausted, but surprisingly not too sore the next day. Classes have started so sometime soon I´ll give yáll the info about school, but the short version is that I have 4 literature/writing classes so I´m going to have a lot to keep me busy besides this blog.
EN FIN, life is warm and sunny here in Quito. Hope it´s good wherever you are. Lots of love
Well last weekend our BCA group took a 2 hour trip north to the indigenous town of OTAVALO. It´s a really cool pueblo where 80% of the population is from the Quichua tribe and they still preserve many of their traditions, such as their dress, music, and crafts-- beautiful tapestries, paintings, jewelry, leather, woven or embroidered clothing, hammocks, etc etc... we drove up Friday and went to the open MARKET all Saturday morning. There were so many beautiful things everywhere I was dizzy! What a perfect marriage of consumerism/toursim and the preservation of an indigenous group´s way of life;).
In the afternoon we visited some neighboring pueblecitos and met Juan Carlos, an 80yo indigenous man who has been WEAVING since he was 7. He still cuts, softens, spins, dyes all his own wool, by hand, with the help of his wife. One of the scarves he showed us takes 3 days from start to finish, and one of the thick ponchos up to 3 months. We then had the option to buy a scarf, for $7-$10, or a poncho for around $150. It made me think about all the great deals I had gotten in the market earlier that day. We´ve been told that 80% of Ecuadorians are considered part of the economic lower-class; less than $3/day certainly doesn´t sound like a living wage.
Our next stop was a family´s house where they make all kinds of MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. The father and his oldest 3 sons (I think) were part of the first and most famous Andean musical group from Ecuador. His little girls, even the 3yo!, helped in the performance, shaking bunches of shells or drumming. There is a still a lot of racism/classism in Ecuador, as in prejudice against the indigenous groups (a nice legacy of the Spanish conquest), and it made me sad to think that these talented beautiful little girls could grow up to feel like they are worth less than everyone else in their country, especially those who look like me. But, identity philosophizing aside, for now they were just curious kids, happy to kick around a soccer ball with us foreigners and give Ruby high-fives.
To cap off the day, we drove out to a NATURE RESERVE, where some of Ecuador´s oldest and most oxigen-producing trees are located. Our guide called it ¨Los pulmones del mundo,¨or the lungs of the world. We walked along some scenic trails and stopped at the bottom of a WATERFALL to cool off. It was a pretty romantic place, and tho we didnt have time to, some people had climbed up to the very top of the falls. In a little cove of trees overlooking the cascading waters, some young lovers, seemingly far-removed from the tourists below but actually quite visible, completed the cinematic landscape by MAKING OUT above the river spray, lightly shrouded by the mist. Alicia, ever the voyeur, used her powerful digital zoom technology to snap a few pictures.
The RITE OF PASSAGE for the trip was the trek up La Mojanda. We rode a bus for an hour to a rural area surrounded by impressive mountains and expansive lagoons. We parked at the base of MOUNT MOJANDA and gazed intrepidly up at the looming peak. While we´re all more accustomed to the altitude by now, the first ten minutes of the climb about kilLed me. Not everyone planned to go all the way to the top, and I momentarily considered stopping halfway, but with the iron will of the mountaineer that I am, bravely pressed on. Two hours and some 2000FT later, we were above the clouds and at the top of the 14000FT MOUNTAIN! I was about 6th to reach the peak, and some 5 people later, Christine, the one with the backpack full of cookies, appeared over the ridge and was promptly mobbed by ravenous hikers. After our mini-feast, self-congratulations, reveling and picture-taking, we began the descent. While the way up was made easier by the sturdy grass I could use to grab onto with every steep step, the way down was complicated by the muddyness. So, following the lead of our faithful leader Pablo, I opted to use the tall grass to my advantage again, and slid most of the way down on my butt, using the stalks to steer. Thus I made it down with little stress to my knees, but with a huge whole in the rear of my pants--quite cute. No, no one got a picture.
That was more or less the extent of our first group excursion. By the time we made it home I was completely exhausted, but surprisingly not too sore the next day. Classes have started so sometime soon I´ll give yáll the info about school, but the short version is that I have 4 literature/writing classes so I´m going to have a lot to keep me busy besides this blog.
EN FIN, life is warm and sunny here in Quito. Hope it´s good wherever you are. Lots of love
Posted by: Well / 11:39 AM 
