This weekend we visited a small village called Saraguro. It was about 3 hours out of Cuenca. We arrived and checked in this cute little hostel. When I heard hostel I pictured 10 of us sleeping in one room and sharing one bathroom. However, it was very nice. There were 3 of us to a room. The only down side was that there was no indoor heating, but it actually wasn’t too bad. After we settled into the hostel, we left for another hike through the Andes. This hike was absolutely beautiful! The climb was pretty steep so you had to look where you were going or you might have tumbled off the mountain. Once we got to the top it was amazing; so peaceful and quiet and green everywhere. I could have sat up there all day. We returned from the hike after about 3 hours and had a little time to rest before dinner.
Before dinner we visited another textile factory, which was pretty big. It was interesting to see the differences in the textile factories we have seen across each of the indigenes groups. We then went across the way to a little restaurant for dinner. We had delicious potato soup and then a bowl of veggies with grilled chicken. It was very good. After dinner we listened to some music and did a little dancing. I was exhausted from the long day so we returned to the hostel and had a nice sleep on our hard hard beds.
Today we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel. We then left for a traditional ceremony to get rid of bad spirits and ask for good spirits. It was very interesting to see what the ceremony consisted of. There was an alter and a leader and we passed around a stick and said what we were thankful for or just handed it off in silence. Another woman had a piece of rope and would rub it across the back of our necks and down or bodies. I’m not exactly sure of the significance. After the ceremony we visited the market. It was full of beads and jewelry so I bought a couple gifts of course.
After the markets had come the time everyone had been waiting for… time to try cuy or guinea pig. I was very against trying it when everyone was talking about it. However, when today came I figured when in Ecuador would I ever get to say I had tried guinea pig before? I decided I would wait to see what it looked like and that would determine if I was going to try it. The bowl of chicken, cuy, potatoes, and cheese arrived. There it was the leg of the guinea pig. I had decided against it at that point. Everyone started trying it and saying oh it doesn’t taste that bad, kind of like chicken. As lunch continued on I decided to try the tiniest tiniest of bites. I peeled back the skin and tried not to think I was eating something most people had as pets. After lunch we got on the bus and returned back to Cuenca for our last night here. Tomorrow we are on our way to the coast where it is hot! So tonight will pretty much just be packing and organizing for tomorrow.
