Saraguro

Well folks this was the spot for Joy. She is already talking about a one month visit next year. We only found one other tourist and the people all knew that we were strangers. The traditional garb of the Saraguros was worn relatively consistently and gave the entire town (about 5000) an indigenous flavour. The Ecuadorian government seems to be trying to improve the lot of indigenous people and the efforts were apparent here. The women wore a black shawl over a decorative blouse with lots of neck jewellery. They all had a large straight silver pin to hold the shawl in place. A few wore the traditional Saraguro hat which is a wide brimmed white fely hat with a black spotted design on the underside. The men wore black ¨Bermuda length¨shorts. They are the descendants of the Saraguros who were moved to this area from Lake Titicaca by the Incans. They were warm and friendly and Joy loved the whole experience.
One of the unusual things we have seen in Ecuador is the selling of motor bikes (we would call them dirt bikes) in the same store as tvs, refridgerators, vacuums, etc. They are very useful in the hills around Saraguro as the houses are spotted all around the hills above the village.
Today we left Saraguro by grabbing one of the local buses to Loja and then another bus to Macara on the Peru/Ecuador border. What a spectacular bus ride it was. We seemed to ride the spine of the Andes, occasionally diving into valleys. I guess that we were varying between 2500 metres and 4500 metres and the grades here are not the same as in NA. Fortunately our driver was older and experienced and had lots of religious items for protection. The views downhill as he careened around the corners were unbelievable. Some of the drops had to be 1000 metres!
Now we are in a town where ¨Carnivale¨is starting to take hold so there was a parade for us and lots of music and water balloons. Tomorrow Peru!