Farewell, Ecuador

Is that Cotopaxi?  Or is it Chimborazo?  Thrilling flight from Cuenca to Quito.

It's Wednesday night and we're back in Madison.  The past three weeks have been a gift, like a warm and multi-faceted jewel tucked into my memory.  I woke up this morning in Chicago, my mind back in Cuenca at the jazz club with the Cuban professor at the piano just a few feet in front of us, the snowy-haired Cuban man rising from the audience to sing my request: "Y Tu? Que Has Hecho con mi Pobre Flor?"  I wasn't dreaming!  We'd really been there!

I stayed up late the night before last, struggling with the ornery computer at our hotel in Cuenca, only to find out that the internet had gone down and I couldn't publish the post!  Arrrgh!  Here's what I wrote, 48 hours ago:

What an incredible three weeks these have been!  New to me was traveling as part of a trio; it was remarkably smooth, and I know we're not only still friends, but closer than ever.

I'm grateful to Helen — Thanks, Helen, for having come up with the idea in the first place, and for making all the arrangements with your son, Greg, for our visit with the Huaorani people.  And thanks for bringing Peace Corps Volunteer Rachel to us in Ambato!  And for introducing us to Charlie, who in turn brought us into the expatriate community in Cuenca for a remarkable night at the international jazz club — one of so many unexpected happenings on this trip.  Thanks for being the phenomenal model that you are — of physical strength, agility and endurance, unceasingly up for whatever the day brings, unfailingly cheerful and positive.

I'm grateful to Sara — Thanks, Sara, for bringing us to all the people with whom you are connected here in Ecuador and Peru.  When I count the richest experiences here in Ecuador, they surely include our time with these wonderful people — Carmen and Carlos in Otavalo, the Kichua teachers at the bilingual school in Salasaca (a miracle in itself,) Delia and Julio and Julio's lovely family in Baños, and then PCV Sylvia who traveled here from Peru, 7 hours each way, to spend just a wee quick evening with us here in Cuenca.  Thanks, Sara, for your irreverent wit and your infectious laughter!  You kept us going!

It's been great!  And just enough.  I'm ready to go home.  I think wandering around a country for three weeks is all I can do.  I'd be happy staying longer in this beautiful place if I had a role here, a function, something to do that would connect me with the Ecuadorian people.  Something that would make me belong here in some way.  As it is, I've been the extranjera, walking the streets with my camera, looking at people, being an obvious outsider, offering nothing but a few tourist coins to the economy.

I did something different today — went to the post office to mail a book to the school in Salasaca.  You'd think this would be a quick and boring chore, but not so!  I loved every part of it — purchasing a manila envelope at the papelería, figuring out how to address an envelope here, (did you know that Salasaca is in the Province of Tungurahua?) leaving the envelope OPEN so that the post office employee can see what's inside and then letting the post office seal the package, showing a copy of my passport to the post office clerk!  All of this was extremely satisfying as it took me into real life here in Ecuador, gave me a glimpse of how ordinary people get one little thing done.

One of our taxi drivers yesterday mentioned that his wife and sons ran a zapatería — they make shoes and other leather goods and sell them.  He gave me the address.  Of course, I misunderstood the address and spent the better part of the morning trying to find the shop.  On the third try, after wearing out a good deal of my own shoe leather, I did find it!  And the woman who came to the counter really was the taxi driver's wife!  I got way more out of that experience than the two coin purses I purchased from the taxi driver's wife for $2 each.

After leaving the shoe shop, I stumbled into a wonderful museum just a few blocks away — Museo Manuel Agustín Landívar: Vestigios de Todos Los Santos.  It's connected to a small bit of ruins including not only Spanish and Inca structures, but remnants of the pre-Incan Cañari people.  I interrupted the lunch of the sole employee at the museum, a lovely curator who happily walked me down to a gate along the sidewalk, opened it, said I could walk around the ruins at my leisure.  The curator spoke in Spanish, explained that the Cañari civilization flourished here until about 1440 when the Incas arrived and took over.  So the Quichua language, imposed upon the Cañari by the Inca, is actually peppered here in Cuenca with some old bits of Cañari.  And, she said that everywhere you go in Ecuador, Quichua-speaking people are speaking a variety of Quichua which incorporates some of whatever people spoke before the Inca arrived, and that varies from region to region.  

A few photos from the last two days of wandering the streets in Cuenca:

Mural on the wall of a building in center city

Murals along the river walk

Note the hummingbird and the pig on a vertical spit.

Sylvia Kaufman rode a bus for 7 hours from La Cruz, Peru, to Cuenca, spent the evening with us, and then got back on the bus to Peru at 7:15 am the next day.  What a woman!  She surely must be a terrific Peace Corps Volunteer.  (Sylvia's stationed in the very same town that Sara was in; they had a lot to talk about!)

Here we are with Sylvia at Café Eucalyptus, where we had curry and ravioli!

Lots and lots of political graffiti; I can't figure this one out.

If God exists, he dines at the boss' table.

Inca ruins; reminds me of what I remember seeing at Machu Picchu.

Tightly fitted stones similar to those in Peru; so amazing

This wall was constructed by the Cañari before the Inca arrived.

Very rough translation:  Walker with eyes open... reforestation grows on the walls.   

Live free.

Liberty does not have property.

The "Tin Man" —  Carlos Bustos Fernandez.  It was a rare treat to stumble upon his workshop.

International presence...  Dubai...

Morocco...

We think this one's Volcán Tungurahua, as there's no snow on top.  (It's active.)  The flight from Cuenca to Quito was the first of our three flights on Tuesday, December 4.

When we got to Quito, we were greeted at the airport by Carmen and Carlos, who had driven down from Otavalo to bid us farewell and to bring us our extra baggage which they had kept for us while we traveled South.  (What a gift that was, not to have to lug all that stuff around!)  

Also greeting us at the Quito airport were Jascivan Carvalho, the owner of Tropic Journeys in Nature, and Xavier Neira, who had been our naturalist guide among the Huaorani.  It was great to see Xavier again, and to meet Jasci, who is a friend of Helen's son, Greg.

We knew exactly what to do with our very last moments in Ecuador!  Ice cream at the Quito airport!

Ciao!  

Phyllis