I woke up to a beautiful view of the fog surrounding the Andes mountains and went to the breakfast served on the 7th floor of the Quito hotel. It was interesting to see how we were completely surrounded by fog and then it disappeared within a matter of minutes. We then visited la Hosteria La Cienega, which is an old hotel that used to be a mansion. This hotel was full of old furniture and paintings of what I assumed belonged to the previous owners. All the decorations seemed to be carefully placed throughout the whole hotel and it had an almost perfect feeling to it. We then were surprised with an Ecuadorian band that came in while we drank our hot chocolate and tea. The music they played was filled with excitement and culture. I observed the joy and laughter that the men had while sharing the Ecuadorian music with us. It made me feel very welcomed. After the music was over and being unsuccessful in finding a llama, we continued our journey to the Comunidad Salasaca. This group of people is indigenous and work hard to hand-make blankets, scarves, sweatshirts, etc. using and old technique. This technique was similar to the one we saw in the Mindala workshop. They use a wooden structure and strings to make the blanket. I was then dressed up in their traditional women’s clothes that felt warm and light. The cotton hat was heavy and was made so that the person wearing it must balance it since the head cannot fit inside of the hat. After observing for some time, we were then directed to a table for lunch. They served fresh vegetables with a traditional tea. The tea tasted somewhat like chamomile. I enjoyed the piece of corn that they served which had to be chewed more that the corn served in the United States. After the meal, we were given a demonstration of a traditional dance done for a specific event. After they demonstrated it, we were able to join. We then departed for Riobamba and arrived at our hotel. Upon our arrival, I unfortunately became ill and was only able to attend a few minutes of the welcome dinner.
