Inty Raimy is the name of the festivals we´ve been going to. It goes on for about 8 Saturdays in a row. and we´ve been able to catch the last few. During the festival groups of dancers, muscians and singers walk in a procession down the street, usually followed by a big truck with massive stacks of speakers blasting either recorded music or amplifying a live band in the back. Every block or so the group will stop and dance in a circle, switching directions every once in a while. Chickens seem to be a big part of the celebration. They tie ribbons in their feathers, bind their legs and dance around with them and sometimes tossing them in the air. What I learned about the chicken thing is that it has to do with abundance and wealth, if you bring 2 chickens to the festival, next year you have to bring 12. (I´m assuming it´s for the feast, cause I´m don´t see how you could dance with 12 chickens!) Not everyone has a chicken, but a lot do. Drinking is also a big part, sharing bottles of Pilsener and passing cups of apple or peach wine around. they make a drink from corn that is fermented called chicha, people pass this around too. When the group is walking the musicians are either in the front or the behind the dancers, and when they stop to dance they move into the center with either 1 or 2 rings of dancers moving around them. This last Saturday we went again to Inty Raimy, but this time in a town named Caja. This time each group had a fretility effigy that was held in the middle, a tall pole and at the top was a lashed together pyramid of bamboo. From it was hung frutas y pan, somtimes bottles of wine or alcohol. The women wear their ususal ropa, sometimes a little more colorful with extra ribbons or a different shape white felt hat. The men however wear a white button down shirt, a fringed shawl around their waist and goatskin chaps, sometimes with bells on them. There are a good number of women who wear this instead of the traditional skirt and blouse. There is usually a leader of each group, this guy wears a mask representing the face of the devil, or la cara de diablo, he will sometimes have a whip or a long switch. He uses these for theatrics and is pretty lively keeping his dancers engaged. These groups will dace until 5, or 6 in the morning!
Elias and Victoria had lots of friends and familia there, and I think there were looking for someone to take me into the dance circle, because they kept asking how I liked the dancing....it was so intoxicating how could you not!?! Rosita, Elias´ sister was there and so for my third time at the inty raimy festival I finally got to dance! I felt so excited and honored I was crying and laughing at the same time. We were 3 of 6 gringos amoung 100´s of Kitchwa. And I was definitely the only gringa dancing - that´s for sure. We were in the plaza of Caja, the final place of the dancing groups. They process through the streets and some down the panamerican highway until they get to the plaza, then they take turns dancing in front of the main stage.
As the night wore on we were all dancing - to the delight of many it seemed, as lots of people wanted to meet us and talk to us after that. We were invited to dance in other groups, but mostly we were dancing with those that we knew...even Elias and Victoria were dancing!
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Thursday, August 11, 2011
pequenasventanas' photostream
pequenasventanas' photostream on Flickr.
one of our work days in Pijal. one day we'll actually get to do the milking! for now we are just help in standby, but we can stack wood and break off corn.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
adventures with lard
well...last night i mistook lard for butter. things are different here...like buying food and recognizing what you are eating. we made bread in the big oven last night...and it was made with butter. just that there was an extra stick of what looked sort of like butter. so when the fresh bread came out of the `orno` my first thought was to find that ``extra´´ stick of butter and slather my fresh warm bread with it......yummy. i ate 3 rolls this way, and so did michael and xylia, until michael had the epiphany that maybe, just maybe what i think is butter is not...so we aked maria. and sure enough she confirmed that there are 2 kinds one made from the cows milk and one made from the fat of the animals. so that put a quick end to my bread and butter feast....and i tried to to think about the fact that i was eating straight lard on my beautiful bread.
I have eaten cuy though...guinea pig...which was surprisingly delicious. and michael has eaten papas con sangre (that´s potatoes with blood) and tripe...but he´ll eat anything.
I have eaten cuy though...guinea pig...which was surprisingly delicious. and michael has eaten papas con sangre (that´s potatoes with blood) and tripe...but he´ll eat anything.
to my ñañitas
Ñaña is sister in Kitchwa the local native language. So it seems next to learning español, I also need to pick up kitchwa. The family we are with are fluent in both languages.
This is such beautiful country, so GREEN! We are in a small valley near lago San Pablo which is all at the base of a mountain called Imbabura, an old dormant volcano rather. Imbabura has 2 peaks, the one on the left is the Mama, and the one on the right is Taita, or Papa. I found out yesterday that on the other side of the Mama is the ¨Corazon de Imbabura¨, a massive heart naturally carved out on the face of the mountain.
I´m getting used to riding the buses around here, bumping back and forth on the panamerican from Pijal to Otavalo or Cayambe. We are in a dense indigenous area of Kitchwa people. A beautiful race with such noble features. High cheek bones under slighly slanted smiling eyes, the smoothest coffee colored skin and rich shiny blackest black hair. Their culture is strong and important (...a totally different concept to my american eyes. It is so refreshing to see a culture celebrate their heritage!) In the 2 festivals I´ve been to they were full of adolescents, young adults, and all ages in full dress, singing and dancing.
The Cayambe tribe of Kitchwa of which the Pijal family is, the women wear a wool skirt to the mid calf with tight pleats trimmed in ribbon of colors representing the earth and their environment...vibrant colors of blue, pink, green, browns, grey, reds and yellows. A white blouse with lacey full sleeves and embroiderd trim in colors to match the skirt. Red beads, traditionally red coral around both wrists and many strands of gold beads around their neck. They wear their hair tied back in either a braid or wrapped in a narrow woven ribbon, always topped with a fedora. On their feet they wear simple little flat black sandles that tie around the ankle.
When someone comes over to the house or when you meet someone you know in the street you hug and kiss, or for men handshake and hug each and every person hello and goodbye! They are a very affectionate people. Babies are stapped to almost every woman´s back, or another siblings. Breastfeeding is ubiquitous...walking down the street, in the bus...everywhere. I didn´t realize how sterile our culture is with that until I came to one that recongnized it for what it is.
....and the Mother, she´s here too. Pachamama is honored and seen as the always present volcanos ans mountains, and the maize they eat every day. but in the churches and the cathedrals it is Mary and child at the forefront... bigger and more impressive than any other diosa. She also has shines everywhere, places you wouldn´t expect like the dusty bus terminals, or just along the highway.
This is such beautiful country, so GREEN! We are in a small valley near lago San Pablo which is all at the base of a mountain called Imbabura, an old dormant volcano rather. Imbabura has 2 peaks, the one on the left is the Mama, and the one on the right is Taita, or Papa. I found out yesterday that on the other side of the Mama is the ¨Corazon de Imbabura¨, a massive heart naturally carved out on the face of the mountain.
I´m getting used to riding the buses around here, bumping back and forth on the panamerican from Pijal to Otavalo or Cayambe. We are in a dense indigenous area of Kitchwa people. A beautiful race with such noble features. High cheek bones under slighly slanted smiling eyes, the smoothest coffee colored skin and rich shiny blackest black hair. Their culture is strong and important (...a totally different concept to my american eyes. It is so refreshing to see a culture celebrate their heritage!) In the 2 festivals I´ve been to they were full of adolescents, young adults, and all ages in full dress, singing and dancing.
The Cayambe tribe of Kitchwa of which the Pijal family is, the women wear a wool skirt to the mid calf with tight pleats trimmed in ribbon of colors representing the earth and their environment...vibrant colors of blue, pink, green, browns, grey, reds and yellows. A white blouse with lacey full sleeves and embroiderd trim in colors to match the skirt. Red beads, traditionally red coral around both wrists and many strands of gold beads around their neck. They wear their hair tied back in either a braid or wrapped in a narrow woven ribbon, always topped with a fedora. On their feet they wear simple little flat black sandles that tie around the ankle.
When someone comes over to the house or when you meet someone you know in the street you hug and kiss, or for men handshake and hug each and every person hello and goodbye! They are a very affectionate people. Babies are stapped to almost every woman´s back, or another siblings. Breastfeeding is ubiquitous...walking down the street, in the bus...everywhere. I didn´t realize how sterile our culture is with that until I came to one that recongnized it for what it is.
....and the Mother, she´s here too. Pachamama is honored and seen as the always present volcanos ans mountains, and the maize they eat every day. but in the churches and the cathedrals it is Mary and child at the forefront... bigger and more impressive than any other diosa. She also has shines everywhere, places you wouldn´t expect like the dusty bus terminals, or just along the highway.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
love from Pijal
hi all! we are in Otavalo today at an internet "cafe". We have been staying in the village of Pijal with our friend Maria and her family. Her family is so generous and sweet, they live very raw and simple, but they have an extra building on their property that we are sleeping in. It has some electricity, but basicly it´s a room with concrete floors and a table. there are matts for us to sleep on, plus we have our camp pads and sleeping bags. We wash our clothes outside in a concrete water basin. Victoria, our hostess has most of the farm duties, and xylia went with her to milk the cows yesterday.
michael got sick the other day, then it was me yesterday....not too bad, just have to go to the bathroom a lot. Elias, Victoria´s husband is a 5th grade teacher, and he gave us a spanish lesson the other day. We are hoping to help out more on the farm, and now that we are all feeling better we may get to. there are lots of pictures, but i can´t post any from this computer. i think we may stay her in Pijal (30 min bus ride from Otavalo) until Mon, or Tues. We plan to head to the coast for a bit...it seems it´s whale watching season there. plus there´s an island of the coast they call "the poor man´s galapagos", but really isla la plata is the one place you can see all the variaties of the boobie birds and winged albatross, plus good snorkelling, so we are looking forward to that. although i have to say leaving the sisters will be difficult...they are so lovling and generous. they have so little yet give so much.
michael got sick the other day, then it was me yesterday....not too bad, just have to go to the bathroom a lot. Elias, Victoria´s husband is a 5th grade teacher, and he gave us a spanish lesson the other day. We are hoping to help out more on the farm, and now that we are all feeling better we may get to. there are lots of pictures, but i can´t post any from this computer. i think we may stay her in Pijal (30 min bus ride from Otavalo) until Mon, or Tues. We plan to head to the coast for a bit...it seems it´s whale watching season there. plus there´s an island of the coast they call "the poor man´s galapagos", but really isla la plata is the one place you can see all the variaties of the boobie birds and winged albatross, plus good snorkelling, so we are looking forward to that. although i have to say leaving the sisters will be difficult...they are so lovling and generous. they have so little yet give so much.
Friday, July 29, 2011
segundo semana en Ecuador
We're into our second week, 51 to go. The first week in Quito was super stressful. It's the capital city and airport hub for Ecuador, and we stayed at a hotel in a heavy tourist and entertainment area called Mariscal, so the crime and danger level was up, the pace was hectic, and people we're generally very invasive. Essentially, everything there was focused on tourist dollars. The hostel was very friendly and safe, thankfully, so we had a safe-house base of operations. It was actually a great hostel to get acclimated in, and we explored a bit of the city. We also met lots of travelers, got good advice, and even met a few again when we traveled to another city, Banos, after our 6'th day.
Banos is great, relaxing and safe. It's small, but robust. Tourism centers around river rafting and hiking tours, and other adventure stuff. A huge focus on spa, hot baths and massage as Banos is in the valley of an active Volcano. So active it spewed ash a few months ago and closed the town down. So active that it nearly wiped out the population in '95. But totally gorgeous as of our stay. There's thermal baths all around town. We spend hours in these developed tubs going from hot to cold and hot to cold, all under rainforest cliffs with a huge waterfall within arms reach. There's a huge Basilica in Banos that worships and celebrates the Virgen's miracles in the face of Volcanic disaster. The Cascada (waterfall) is considered holy water, and drunk by the locals regularly. The baths are fed by it.
Food is good or poor, it's hit or miss when you first arrive anywhere. The fresh juice is great. Local fruit is gorgeous. Nearly every Ecuadorian meal: desayuno, almuerzo, cena, is rice and chicken and soup and jugo (juice) for $2 or $2.50. There's options, but the typical and cheapest path is as described with minor variations. Oh, and the bread is really good. Potatoes of any kind are great. Lots of banana and plantain. Crap beer. Good cheap Chilean table wine. Fantastic local cane alcohol made into a drink much like a rich hot toddy.
I'm really enjoying the hostel scene. There's this flow of people and shared space, lots to exchange and learn, people to travel with. We exchange email with good odds of meeting again across the continent. And, you know my gregarious tendencies to talk with strangers, it's serving us well here as it helps learn about the area and get recommendations. My Spanish is doing great, it's helping all of our needs, navigating conversations, learning quickly. I try to share that experience so we can all learn, but I get excited and quickly take over. I'll be fairly fluent by the time our year is up. Hopefully, we'll all practice it when we return and not lose the opportunity.
So, we're in Banos now, 4hrs South of Quito. It's been 4 nights, and we're leaving this afternoon for a small farm town 2-3 hours North of Quito called Gonzales Suarez, 1/2hr North of Cayambe and just South of a beautiful city called Otavalo. Our hands were held on the bus to Banos by a friend and her family (thus the next jump to the farm town). This will be our first solo bus adventure. Harder still, it's a really small stop, which, from what we saw on the way, people almost literally jump on and off the slowing bus. We'll be lucky if we get off at the right place with no hassles. This isn't the Chicken Bus idea we may all have in our heads. And not quite the Super-Sleepers for 24-48hr rides. But still a large tour style bus with reclining seats and a movie playing at the front. We watched some Hollywood crime cool guy film in Spanish dubbing on the way here. It stops often, it's bumpy, and we feel like we need to keep our eyes on the bags when the bus stops, but I suspect they're OK with locks. Typically, no one opens the luggage compartments on the small, incessant stops.
I'm writing in a journal a lot. It's been natural, unlike Blogging or Facebook, or frankly, even email. I'm considering taking macro pictures of the pages and send those out or post them. In fact, that's what I intend. Lots of pictures. Probably too many.
Gotta run. We're navigating toward lunch, leaving our Hostel in Banos, and getting ready for a 6-7hr bus adventure at 2:30.
buenos suertes por todos
-michael
Banos is great, relaxing and safe. It's small, but robust. Tourism centers around river rafting and hiking tours, and other adventure stuff. A huge focus on spa, hot baths and massage as Banos is in the valley of an active Volcano. So active it spewed ash a few months ago and closed the town down. So active that it nearly wiped out the population in '95. But totally gorgeous as of our stay. There's thermal baths all around town. We spend hours in these developed tubs going from hot to cold and hot to cold, all under rainforest cliffs with a huge waterfall within arms reach. There's a huge Basilica in Banos that worships and celebrates the Virgen's miracles in the face of Volcanic disaster. The Cascada (waterfall) is considered holy water, and drunk by the locals regularly. The baths are fed by it.
Food is good or poor, it's hit or miss when you first arrive anywhere. The fresh juice is great. Local fruit is gorgeous. Nearly every Ecuadorian meal: desayuno, almuerzo, cena, is rice and chicken and soup and jugo (juice) for $2 or $2.50. There's options, but the typical and cheapest path is as described with minor variations. Oh, and the bread is really good. Potatoes of any kind are great. Lots of banana and plantain. Crap beer. Good cheap Chilean table wine. Fantastic local cane alcohol made into a drink much like a rich hot toddy.
I'm really enjoying the hostel scene. There's this flow of people and shared space, lots to exchange and learn, people to travel with. We exchange email with good odds of meeting again across the continent. And, you know my gregarious tendencies to talk with strangers, it's serving us well here as it helps learn about the area and get recommendations. My Spanish is doing great, it's helping all of our needs, navigating conversations, learning quickly. I try to share that experience so we can all learn, but I get excited and quickly take over. I'll be fairly fluent by the time our year is up. Hopefully, we'll all practice it when we return and not lose the opportunity.
So, we're in Banos now, 4hrs South of Quito. It's been 4 nights, and we're leaving this afternoon for a small farm town 2-3 hours North of Quito called Gonzales Suarez, 1/2hr North of Cayambe and just South of a beautiful city called Otavalo. Our hands were held on the bus to Banos by a friend and her family (thus the next jump to the farm town). This will be our first solo bus adventure. Harder still, it's a really small stop, which, from what we saw on the way, people almost literally jump on and off the slowing bus. We'll be lucky if we get off at the right place with no hassles. This isn't the Chicken Bus idea we may all have in our heads. And not quite the Super-Sleepers for 24-48hr rides. But still a large tour style bus with reclining seats and a movie playing at the front. We watched some Hollywood crime cool guy film in Spanish dubbing on the way here. It stops often, it's bumpy, and we feel like we need to keep our eyes on the bags when the bus stops, but I suspect they're OK with locks. Typically, no one opens the luggage compartments on the small, incessant stops.
I'm writing in a journal a lot. It's been natural, unlike Blogging or Facebook, or frankly, even email. I'm considering taking macro pictures of the pages and send those out or post them. In fact, that's what I intend. Lots of pictures. Probably too many.
Gotta run. We're navigating toward lunch, leaving our Hostel in Banos, and getting ready for a 6-7hr bus adventure at 2:30.
buenos suertes por todos
-michael
premeria semana en Quito
our second room at the hostel!...we changed a few times, it was kinda fun. These other pics are from our first food buying trip. As we were walking up to the Supermaxi we found this small organic vegetable vendor! We were able to buy a huge bag of fresh veggies for $2.50! We cooked a lot at this hostel....a nice comfort for our bellies!
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