So, as the title suggests, I finally saw llamas this weekend, although I will get to that towards the end of the blog since that wasn’t until day 4. Let’s start with day 1 and getting to the airport at 5:45 in the morning on Friday to take our half hour flight to Cuenca. When we arrived we all piled onto a bus for another 3 hour ride to a small indigenous town called Saraguro. We took a bus ride around the countryside and had some commentary from a local guide and saw lots of very cute authentically dressed little kids who were all very excited to see us. After, we also got to stop into a family’s home to try a traditional drink (that was supposed to resemble tequila although I missed that connection) that was made from…what else, corn. 
We also learned the Quitchua way to say “cheers” which is (possible miss-spellings aside) “ishgandi ishgandi”. I’m sure it would be fun to keep trying to say that over and over again the more and more drunk you got. After, we took a little rest in our hostel on our incredibly board-like beads all huddled up in our sweatshirts and blankets because, believe it or not, rural towns in Ecuador are not all equipped with central heating…or heating at all. How can they live??? 
After the rest we visited a tajido factory and got to see the wooden reams (for lack of a better way of calling them) that the people used to made all the woven works. Time-consuming, but pretty incredible still. We had a traditional dinner after followed by traditional music, which once again sounded quite like music of Native North Americans. Pete had his first music debut that night too playing the drum. I was impressed at how well he kept time for it being his first ever music endeavor, although he was concentrating very hard. Exhausted, after the night of music, even on the hard beds it was no problem to fall asleep and sleep very soundly at that. (I slept very well every night of this trip.)
The next morning we went on a hike that lasted all of about 15 or so minutes but was basically straight up a wall- very steep in other words. It was impressive how much I was sweating and how hard I was breathing how quickly. At the top of the little mountain we climbed we met up with three indigenous members of the town to share with them a special ceremony honoring/thanking the gods and earth and sun and such. It was cool just to see a completely different kind of religious ceremony like that. We also got spit on and drank a natural medicine of fermented herbs and such that really just tasted like fiery soap-water. (It really was pretty awful stuff, and we all tried very hard to hide our shock and dislike as we swallowed it and burned our throats…) but if it cleanses my soul I guess it’s ok once in a life time, and I can totally see how it could work. The burping up of soap taste for about the next 4 hours wasn’t the most pleasant though, I have to admit. But, how many people can say they’ve had all of that experience. We also got to see more waterfalls too. After returning to a reasonable altitude (which of course is all relative in Ecuador) we visited another small house where we had the opportunity to buy woven articles and beaded necklaces and earrings. To finish off our trip we headed to another house where we were to have lunch and taste “cui” (which is guinea pig). Unfortunately, there was a little bit of a miscommunication and some people got chicken and others cui even though everyone wanted to try it. We discovered this after everyone said their cui tasted just like chicken and I adamantly insisted that my chicken leg was far too large to be from a guinea pig. So, I didn’t get to eat a whole lot of cui although I did get to try a little bit which tastes like a darker stronger chicken. Oh well. After our meal we hopped back on the bus too head back to Cuenca and once there, we all very sluggishly and exhaustedly drug ourselves around a few places of interests (mostly churches) in Cuenca before checking into our hotel. Although we all would have liked to go out and explore Cuenca more (because we didn’t in fact have very much time at all in the actual city- which some of us were a little annoyed at) but we were so tired that we needed a nap before hand. An hour later it was already dark so we just ventured out to find some food. We found a good pizza place where Kayla, Hilary, and I all also treated ourselves to about a pint of ice cream with a quarter pint of whipped cream on top. It was fantastic. After, we walked down to the main bar/club road called Calle Larga but didn’t find too much in the way of dancing going on so instead four of us very classy-like sat on a curb drinking aguadiente and watching the people pass by with all sorts of other problems of their own.
The next morning was an early riser again and we headed to another place a couple hours outside of Cuenca called El Cajas which is a national park where we got to hike around in the mud in our rubber boots (probably my favorite part of the trips after the llamas). We did a smaller loop that took about 2 hours and walked to a few of the 80+ lakes in the area. Cassie managed to fall 3 times and rip her pants, while Neal fell I think twice, and Kaylie once. Good times. The boots and mud were all sorts of fun but the impressive number of mosquitoes that attacked our faces when we walked by the lakes and rivers weren’t so much fun. Although luckily I haven’t found any bites. After our little adventure we climbed back on the bus to get lunch and go visit the Panama hat factory back in Cuenca. Unfortunately, because it was Sunday, it was closed. So we returned to Cuenca again around the evening time and visited briefly an art market between the two rivers. Being late again when we finished we had to go out for more food and then returned to our search for a nightlife. Our tour guide had told us that that night many people would be out celebrating because this weekend was holiday weekend for Cuenca. We didn’t find anything going on so we invested in another bottle of aguadiente (which by the way isn’t that good, but very cheap so it’s popular) and went back to our hotel to play cards. Surprisingly, this was quite good entertainment.
The last morning we woke early again to once again jump in the bus to first visit a church on the hill, where Hilary awkwardly and loudly ramped into a pew as we entered and I got to be a gargoyle yet again and make our tour guide nervous by climbing all over ledges and then causing other people to do the same. I just feel so confined in this country. Then we headed to a small area of ruins (not Loja which is the big site) and had a short tour there where we saw, for the first time in person in the wild, LLAMAS!!!! Needless to say, I was pretty stoked. It was cool seeing the ruins as well, even if they weren’t exactly Macho Pichu, until it started raining on us and then became quite miserable- only because of course I wasn’t wearing my sweatshirt of rain coat. But the bus was close and after the tour Tristan and I got in a nice little sprint back to the bus where I was one of the only ones to have a nice warm and dry sweatshirt to change into. (I’m sure I planned it all along.) After our last meal together we headed to the airport to board our plane back to Quito.
To top off the weekend, Marco (who got into Quito the night before we left) came with Adolfo to the airport to meets us. I was so excited to see him I was shaking while waiting for them to arrive. Also… my beautiful Ecuadorian brother brought me 2 liters of Dr. Pepper from the U.S. He’s pretty much amazing. The two boys, Cassie and I went out to eat a huge hamburger and get free ice cream because Adolfo decided to tell the waiter it was my birthday (nice surprise…) and chat and banter (of course) among the four of us which was just a really great time. We all fed off each other very well and it was great to finish off a long trip with them and spending time with Marco. After they walked me home before catching a cab themselves it took me all of about 20 min to get ready for bed and crash out for a great night’s sleep after a pretty event-filled weekend.
[[And although it’s not officially part of the weekend… last night we went out to watch and celebrate the results of the election at a completely gringo-packed bar with $2.50 beers where I was so proud of my New Mexico and it’s 5 delegates going blue and got to see the first bi-racial president of the United States whom I voted for win office. Holding back the same amount tears I cried in 2004 with Bush’s re-election but now for a different reason I can whole-heartedly say that I have never been more proud of my country or more excited for the next four years.]]
