I hope you don’t think it’s all play and no work for me! Believe me, I work HARD during the week. However, I’m at a place in my life and in my teaching that I can get it all done in the week and have my weekends to do stuff I enjoy…namely traveling throughout this beautiful country! Who knows how long I’ll be here so I need to take advantage, right? (At least, that’s what I tell myself J)
Salinas de Guaranda is the place I’m visiting this weekend with a few girlfriends from work.
To get to this artisan village is no easy feat. You’ve got to go from Quito to Ambato to Guaranda, winding around the base of Chimborazo Volcano (the highest volcano on earth, if you measure from the center of the earth, since we’re on the equator). The road climbs over 12,000 feet into the high, desolate Andean paramo. You can see vicunas, llamas, alpacas, grazing on the brown grasses. Unfortunately for us, it was a cloudy day and we couldn’t see Chimborazo in all its snowy glory, but just being in a totally different landscape was breathtaking.
So, we finally arrived to Salinas after about a 6 hour journey. Salinas is best described as a hamlet nestled in the green rolling hills. And when I say hills, that’s ALL there is! No flat places, you’re either going up up up or down down down (as my students would say!) Now, the unique thing about Salinas is that even though it’s located in the rural country side and mostly indigenous people live here, you’d think it was poor. But no. In the 1970’s an Italian Priest came to Salinas to help the folks organize themselves into cooperatives. Now the entire town is a cooperative of factories that make high quality artisan products both for national and international export. As a visitor, you can see each of the factories and see the folks hard at work making their crafts. Among the factories are: chocolates (truffles, aji, dark, light, you name it!), cheese (good European-style quality cheeses), weavings (sweaters, gloves, hats made of both wool and alpaca), dried mushrooms, soy products, soccer balls, ceramics, beauty products like natural soaps and shampoos made from the herbs of the area, etc. Even though we came on the weekend, the factories were still open, as it’s a tourist town. Small scale production was amazing to see. I especially liked going into the cheese storage rooms to see the aging cheeses some had been there 6 months or more. Also, seeing the women making their artisan chocolates with such care was a neat thing to see.
It’s quite amazing how successful Salinas has become and how well known among Ecuadorians. In fact, in my upper class neighborhood in Quito, there is a gourmet grocery store that sells all products from Salinas. So, it’s fun to see the people manufacturing these things. Now apart from the factories….
There is HIKING and lots of it. Not really trails, but rather winding roads that go up into the hills. I went on a couple of hikes with my friends. It was kind of like reliving some of my long walks as a Peace Corps Volunteer. The villagers were so friendly, greeting us with a buenas tardes. I was also thinking how lucky I am to live in a safe country, where Americans, as of yet are still welcomed. (Especially in light of the dangers of living in Central America-specifically Honduras and El Salvador). Ecuador is NOTHING like these countries. I have never ever ever felt anywhere near danger-probably the opposite of the spectrum. Folks in small towns are always so curious about where I’m from, what I’m doing here, what my country is like, etc.
My friends and I are staying at HOSTERIA EL REFUGIO, also run by the youth group in the town of Salinas. Because they are a cooperative, the youth take turns doing the cleaning, cooking, intake, etc in the hotel. It’s a simple place, but with huge rooms, windows on all the walls to look at the breathtaking Andean views, space heaters in all the rooms (thank goodness, because we’re at such high altitude, over 12,000 feet I think, it’s COLD at night! And a beautiful common room with a fire place, TV, books, etc. And delicious home cooked meals, served family style. Last night was cream of mushroom soup (local mushrooms), steamed trout, rice (of course) a nice salad and chamomile tea.
The trip back was pretty tranquilo, again winding around volcano Chimborazo, stopping along the way for photos. All in all, a great trip in a small little hamlet.
PS-I’ll post photos on my facebook page…it’s much easier.
No comments:
Post a Comment