Cuenca Part I: Saraguro

After three hours of airport sitting due to fog and ice the night before, we left Quito for the Cuenca airport at about 9:00am. It's a short, easy flight of about 40 minutes so I had barely turned my iPod on when we heard the "Please return your seatbacks to upright position and turn off all portable electronic devices for the remainder of the flight." It was HOT in Cuenca when we boarded our bus, headed south to Saraguro. Saraguro is an originally indigenous community, obviously influenced by modern technology and culture, but still very much holding on to a certain spiritual lifestyle. We were about 3 hours late, so our touring got pushed into dusk when the picture-taking light was not ideal, but we got a great view of the community from a Chiva (like an urban hay ride, in Mom's words).


Very dark, but these are some of the girls and me on top of the Chiva.


Larkin, Laura, and Anyel inside the Chiva before we climbed on top.


Our hotel in Saraguro. The neat thing about tourism in Saraguro (if you'll allow me to put aside the cultural prostitution and often negative influence of insensitive and ignorant visitors) is that they practice what is called Community Tourism. Any money that the hotel makes is split between the whole community. They also have short home stays where one can live, eat, work with the family in their home to see how the community really spends its days and nights, and all of the money from that stay is again shared within the community.


A view of Saraguro from the western hills.


We hopped off the Chiva with our guide, Asuncion, to walk through some of the agricultural plots and learn a little bit about the families and homes in the town. He took us to his home to teach us about the local drink, Uajango (very much unsure about spelling) which tastes like a very yeasty Tequila, only more yeast than alcohol. He said they do actually use the same plant and similar methods in Mexico to make Tequila.


Asuncion and the group outside of his house. The ceramic pitcher at his feet holds the magic drink!


These are the plants from which they harvest the Mishke (also unsure of the spelling) which ferments to become Uajango. They cut off a front in the middle and scoop out the liquid stored in the center stalk. They plug the hole with a large rock or piece of wood, and return the next day to repeat the process. If I remember correctly, I think the plants grow for about 4 years before they can be harvested.


After our Chiva ride through the farm lands, we returned to the towny part of town to visit a weaving textile plant. They explained every process from the spinning of yarn to the feeding of the threads to the actual weaving/pattern process which yields beautiful, beautiful fabric.


We ate a very traditional meal of mote (hominy), crema de espinaca (spinach soup), arroz con vegetales (rice and vegetables) and postre de tomate de arbol (sweetened tree tomatoes) at a restaurant next door. After the meal some of the men from the community played traditional music while we fumbled around on the dance floor, doing our best to immitate Asuncion.

Since we'd been up since about 4:30 that morning, we slept as well as we could have on very, very hard mattresses. We woke up early on Friday for a 30-ish climb to Los Baños de los Incas (Incan bathrooms), the waterfalls and sacred caves to the east of the town. We were invited to participate in a ritual de florecimiento (strengthening/purifying ritual, like a Shaman) in the caves, which was absolutely my favorite part of the entire trip. I was completely uncomfortable with the fact that we were there witnessing such a sacred part of their culture without the proper respect and understanding, but I left feeling so lucky and blessed and encouraged by the ceremony. I'd rather explain it in person…


These are the sacred caves where the entire community gathers on marked days each year.


Los Baños de los Incas.


After the ceremony Asunción took us to the cemetery to see the tradicional dress and activities for Día de los Muertos. The women are dressed in black skirts with brightly-colored and delicately embroidered white blouses, covered with a black shall and pinned with a beautiful brooch called a “tupo.” They also wear some of the most intricate beaded necklaces I've ever seen. The families decorate the graves with flowers and paper wreaths, then gather around as a group to drink Colada Morada and eat Guaguas de Pan. Colada Morada is a flour-based drink, died deep purple from multiple berries and fruits. Guaugas de Pan are pieces of bread shaped like dolls (for women) or horses (for men) and decorated with frosting or pieces of tissue paper. Guagua means “baby” in Quechua.






Our next-to-last stop in Saraguro was for lunch, where we ate like the locals at a large wooden table, each scooping our food from a bowl at the head of the table. We had bread, hominy, potatoes, and cuy. I was served last, so by the time I ate all of the “cuy” was gone. Cuy is guinea pig, and a very traditional piece of the main dish in Ecuador, but most commonly in the Cuenca area. My buddies told me it tasted just like chicken… go figure! Anyel and I both missed out on the taste test, so we’re going to find our own somewhere in Quito.

Ishkande! That means “salud” or “here’s to your health” in Quechua. Alli Shamushka means “bienvenidos” or “welcome” in Quechua.

On the way back to Cuenca we stopped at a famous panama hat factory to learn about the history of the hats, how they are made, and try on a few! The Saraguro people wear bleached white hats with a black ribbon, but there were all kinds of varieties in the store. The hats are woven by hand, starting with 16 strands and adding as the hat gets bigger. Then, they're put into a metal mold, heated and pressed to keep their shape. If they get wet they lose their shape.



Thus ends the Saraguro portion of our weekend to Quenca and the surrounding areas.