6.22.11
Friday I had a conference to go to for work from 8-4:30. It was a conference informing people of some agricultural law. It didn’t understand a single word; therefore, was super bored the whole time. I wasn’t the only bored one though… there were a TON of people sleeping in their seats. They provided us lunch afterwards. You received an index card at the beginning of the day that had either a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 indicating which tent you should get your food from. Each tent had different traditional foods from all over Ecuador. Pretty cool. I got Tent 1, which was food from Cuenca. Go figure, but it was still delicious. We got back to the office and I was about to leave at 5:30ish and Doc, the lawyer that works at La Red, said they had a meeting to go to at 6:30pm and I could go if I wanted. And I thought to myself “WHAT???? On a FRIDAY??? Are you kidding. This would never fly in the States.” I was so tired because I had been sick all week, but stayed and went with them. It was a presentation on a book about some guys life. Not sure why we had to go to it, but we did. After the book presentation I was like okay, I’m going home bc it was 9pm and I was tired. Then they proceeded to tell me that we were going to another activity. I told them I was really tired and was going to go home since I had to get up early for Saraguro, but they convinced me to go and that they would only be there for like 30 minutes. It ended up being a party at a Women’s Shelter celebrating their anniversary so I was happy I went. I finally got home around midnight. Everyone else stayed and didn’t leave until 2am!! So much for staying for just 30 minutes… haha.
2 pots of soup over an open fire. If you look closely you can see the raw cow hide hanging from the ceiling in the top right hand corner of the pic. There is a ton of smoke, but look hard, it's there. They cut the meat off of that hide for the soup. 
The adults entering for their dances. This is the only pic I have of the dances bc the other pics didn't turn out, unforunately. 
Baby calf taking it's first steps :-) 
Showing off my frozen chocobanana on a stick. DELICIOUS! 
Friday I had a conference to go to for work from 8-4:30. It was a conference informing people of some agricultural law. It didn’t understand a single word; therefore, was super bored the whole time. I wasn’t the only bored one though… there were a TON of people sleeping in their seats. They provided us lunch afterwards. You received an index card at the beginning of the day that had either a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 indicating which tent you should get your food from. Each tent had different traditional foods from all over Ecuador. Pretty cool. I got Tent 1, which was food from Cuenca. Go figure, but it was still delicious. We got back to the office and I was about to leave at 5:30ish and Doc, the lawyer that works at La Red, said they had a meeting to go to at 6:30pm and I could go if I wanted. And I thought to myself “WHAT???? On a FRIDAY??? Are you kidding. This would never fly in the States.” I was so tired because I had been sick all week, but stayed and went with them. It was a presentation on a book about some guys life. Not sure why we had to go to it, but we did. After the book presentation I was like okay, I’m going home bc it was 9pm and I was tired. Then they proceeded to tell me that we were going to another activity. I told them I was really tired and was going to go home since I had to get up early for Saraguro, but they convinced me to go and that they would only be there for like 30 minutes. It ended up being a party at a Women’s Shelter celebrating their anniversary so I was happy I went. I finally got home around midnight. Everyone else stayed and didn’t leave until 2am!! So much for staying for just 30 minutes… haha.
***I did have a video to put here, but it was taking more than 2 hours to upload so I gave up. Maybe I will try it again tomorrow.**
This past weekend I went to Inti Raymi, (not sure what language that is, but it means “Celebration of the Sun”) to an Indigenous community three hours south of Cuenca called Saraguro with my coworkers. We left early Saturday morning and arrived in Saraguro around 11. Man, was this an awesome cultural experience. So cool. Since I live in a HUGE city I don’t get to experience the Indigenous culture, so it was a great weekend full of a new culture.
Where to start…. We checked into our hostel right when we got there to drop our belongings off. Then headed to Las Lagunas (community within Saraguro) to where the festivities of Inti Raymi were. There wasn’t much going on during the day, they were setting up the stage for the bands that were going to be playing in the evening, the women were cooking two ENORMOUS pots of soup for the community for lunch, and we chatted with some of the locals my coworkers knew through La Red (the organization I work with). Also, the president of La Red is from Saraguro so when we told people that’s where we worked they were interested and yada yada yada.
After we chatted, it was about 1pm and we were starting to get hungry for lunch. Our Saraguro friends invited us to eat the soup… the traditional name escapes me right now, but the soup was basically barly, beef, mote (somewhat like large kernels of corn, but with a different flavor), and lots of liquid. It was delicious! The beef in my bowl had a lot of fat on it so I decided to leave most of the pieces in the bowl. Then my friends told me that in the culture it is really rude to leave food on your plate. I then preceeded to tell them there was no way I was gonna be able to eat the fat… so they helped me feed the pieces to the million dogs that were around. Problem solved J
With our tummies full we made our way back to the center of town to walk around, see the park, and shop. And we didn’t forget to get an ice cream bar. ALL the jewelry, scarves, hats, purses, etc. are made my hand and they are very pretty. I bought a matching beaded necklace and earrings for $5 and 2 pairs of earrings for $1 each. I also bought a handmade “camera” holder with a string to put around my neck for when I’m doing touristy things and don’t have to pull my camera out of my backpack to take a picture every time.
It was about 5 o’clock when we made it back to Las Lagunas where the dances were suppose to start at 7. To kill some time we walked down the dirt road further into the community. There was a huge rock standing up on a hill that Angie wanted to go check out so we trudged through the long grass amongst all the cows and up a hill to take a closer look at it. Angie knows a little bit about rocks and she thought this rock was some kind of ancient rock. I can’t remember all the details, but I’m pretty sure they decided it has some kind of historical story behind it.
Saw this mommy cow cleaning her baby as we
were trudging through the field. So cute.
We got back to the area where the activities were about 6 and ate corn on the cob with cheese and watched the guys continue setting up the stage for the evening while we waited another hour. Seven o’clock rolls around and there were still barely any people from the community there and certainly no people dressed up and ready to dance. Then we decided to grab a beer while we waited… and waited… and waited… and waited… and waited… you get the point, we waited until 10:00PM for the dances to start!! Finally, around 9 everyone started trickling in, grabbing their seats, chatting, and watching the little kids run around on the basketball court playing. There were probably like 12 or so traditional dances. They were all so beautiful. The little girls danced, then the youth, the women, and so forth. It was so interesting to watch. They love their culture so much and get really into the dances. Very touching
The music and dancing started and everyone had themselves a great time! We heard the party didn’t end until 4am. We left at 2.
Sunday we got up and ate breakfast at the hostel, got ready, then headed back to Las Lagunas for the Sunday festivities for “Celebration of the Sun.” Man, what a site it was when we arrived. Passed out men on benches, one in front of the “beer tienda,” and others were still stumbling around drunk. Oh, and don’t forget the hung over men. There were lots of them. It’s amazing how much many of the Ecuadorian men can drink nonstop for like 48 hours straight. It’s repulsive, actually.
Anyways, back to Sunday. There was a bike and running competition in the late morning and that’s about it. Most of the activities are at night. Angie and another coworker were going to stay until 9pm then catch a bus back to Cuenca, but I left with another coworker around 2:30 because I was done spending money and didn’t want to arrive at the bus terminal at 12am in the morning. I’m glad I left early because they didn’t end up getting back to Cuenca until 4AM!!
As Ximena and I were walking from Las Lagunas to the bus stop I saw this man standing in his field with his hands on his knees starring at his cow… I was curious so I stopped to check it out longer. Turns out we missed the cow giving birth by like 3 minutes, literally! The calf was still on the ground and the placenta cord was still hanging out of the mothers behind. I saw the calf take its first steps. It was soo stinkin’ cute. It was wobbling all over and the man was trying to help support it. After it got its bearings somewhat it walked right over and sniffed his mom’s utters. So cute! I am probably never going to see that again since I live in a city so I was pretty stoked that I saw that. Bummed I missed the actual birth, but at least I saw its first wobbly steps. Take a look:
Owner helping the calf walk. Also, if you look closely you can see the placenta cord
to the left of the tail hanging out of the momma still.
Baby checking to see if that's his momma :-)
I also ate my first chocobanana, which is a banana on a stick dipped in chocolate and then frozen. It is SOOOOO freaking good. I’ve been wanting to try one for months. And to top of the deliciousness it was only 10₵!
It was a great weekend. Here are some more pics:
Our hostel room
Trying on a warm hat
We passed this precious boy taking a nap on
top of his toy horse on the way to Las Lagunas
Lady making yarn/sting out of sheep wool she just cut off of her sheep
Kids at the starting line getting ready for a race
Angie wearing the hat she just bought
An adorable girl eating an apple
Girls playing jacks in the park
Angie and I waiting for the festivities to begin
Children playing on the sound company's speakers
Little boy playing with a 'top'
One of the many murals in Saraguro
Young girl taking care of her little brother
who just got jacked in the eye
I was taso amazed by this baby on the motorcyle that I had to take a picture
and the guy on the back of the moto decided to spice up the pic a little.
Could you imagine seeing this scene in the States???
Where I bought my corn on the cob from
Women selling their jewelry. Where I bought my beautiful necklace!
Adorable girl in her traditional clothes ready to dance.
She followed Angie around everywhere, it was so cute.
My soup in a ceramic bowl with a wooden spoon
Little boy playing with his dog
Oh, I almost forgot… while we were eating soup for lunch on Sunday my friend Boris (guy) pointed out that these 2 local guys kept starring at Angie and I. They eventually came and sat down at the table (the only table) to eat. And to be funny Boris introduced Angie and I. After I said hola this guy looked at me and said lapo and that was it. I turned to Angie and said in a normal volume, “what does lapo mean (in Spanish, of course)” and she whispered to me, “that’s his name.” I thought I was going to turd my pants I was so embarrassed because I definitely didn’t ask that question quietly, everyone heard. The guy never said anything, but I know exactly what he was thinking… ‘Stupid Gringa.’ That’s still a running joke amongst my friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment