Ecuardorian market! I tried to be reallys surreptitious taking this photo but people were still staring at me with my camera.
We finished grabbing the last of our laundry and played a bit with Patrice's cat. She likes the sunny patio.
Happy cat!
After that we headed to the city center to see the historical buildings and the central plaza, which was a lovely park with a statue in the center of Simon Bolivar, who liberated the northern half of South America from Europe (Guaranda is the capital of the province of Bolivar). We stopped at the bank so Patrice could pay her electric bill and then caught a truck to the town of Salinas de Guaranda.
The town of Salinas and its cliffs
When we arrived in Salinas we met Patrice's Peace Corps friend Hannah, who's leaing a Community Health initiative up there; she teaches yoga to seniors, handwashing and the fundamentals of a healthy diet to children, and I think even a teen ballet class. After meeting up with her and her puppy Henry (only about four months old and already large enough to almost knock me over, I'm a little afraid of what he'll become when full-grown), we went for sandwiches and some of the most delicious hot chocolate I've ever had. It basically tasted like melted chocolate. After lunch, we took Henry on a little hike up to the cross that oversees the town while Hannah went off to teach a class.
Salinas, the salt mine that is also a big part of the town's industry, and Andean hills beyond.
Salinas is shadowed a little bit by this gorgeous rock outcropping that forms a sort of canyon with little caves, tiny but lovely waterfalls, and a carpet of grass perfect enough for a picnic. Since Hannah calls the surrounding area the Shire, I decided this canyon was Rivendell. Henry had a wonderful time off-leash, bounding back and forth along the path and hitting me hard in the back of the legs accidentally, while I just stared around wondering how something this cool was even possible.
Middle Earth is apparently a small part of Ecuador. They've even got giant, Orodruin-esque volcanoes
After the little hike Hannah rejoined us (it turns out school was cancelled for the day, although she didn't find out until after she'd taken a truck taxi all the way out to the community) and we went to the wool factory. It was pretty cool, especially because we could just wander through the factory without any guides, fences, or anything.
The big wool washer. There's a channel of soapy water and a big frame with rods sticking down to grab the wool; the frame moves forward, up, and back in a circular motion to stir the wool and slowly move it toward the pile in the front right of the image.
Not sure what this does, possible a dryer? But it had a cool belt system, I liked it.
After that we stopped at the yarn shop attached to the factory. I spent at least twenty and possibly as much as forty minutes just staring at the pretty yarns with a stupid grin on my face. They had sheep and alpaca wool and I had to get at least some of each (I got more than some!)
When I finally made a decision and purchased some yarn, we went to the Texal where finished products are sold. I found a handknitted sweater (with a hood! And pockets!); Patrice found one as well, and we both left a few bills lighter and several measures happier.
Then the chocolate factory. The tour is similar to that of the wool factory, except behind glass. Mostly a bunch of machines whose purpose we couldn't quite make out, except one that was being used, which looked to be a hopper and a feeding mechanism for bits of chocolate (cacao?) to be fed into a grinder/melter. Being an engineer (especially one who's currently working with and on hoppers), I was unusually excited to see this.
After chocolate was of course cheese! We hit up the cheese factory, another slightly less than exciting tour (they were doing molds! But that was all I could identify with the two afternoons' experience I have with cheesemaking). But the cheese was really good. We tried a couple of samples and I bought some to bring back to the States. All of my souvenir shopping was done in one day, in one town. But it's probably the best place to do such things, because all of the money is going directly back to the men and women of Salinas. Or at least that's my excuse.
After I shopped my wallet to death, we had dinner at a pizzeria. The owner (apparently Hannah knows him) brought out some nachos con queso, which was literally Fritos and some shredded white cheese, warmed up and stuck in a bowl (Ecuador is not a hot spot of good Mexican food). I also got to try a bit of the local moonshine, Pajaro Azul (Blue Bird). It's made with anise and consequently has a strong licorice flavor, which I actually don't mind. As liquors go, it was one of the more pleasant shots to take. I also ordered a canelazo, remembering the deliciously warm fruit drink I had in Quilotoa. This was not that. It was probably about 30% Pajaro Azul, and tasted more like hot alcohol than anything else. After finishing the shot and drinking half the cocktail, though, it started to taste pretty good.
It was getting late and we were running out of time to catch the last truck back to Guaranda, so we finished our food and drinks and headed out.
Sunset over Salinas
Hannah came with us, and when we got back into town we went to the local hangout, Siete Santos (Seven Saints). We each had one more drink and headed back to Patrice's apartment to chat some more and hit the sack. It was an enjoyable night after quite an exhaustingly wonderful day.
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