Palm Sunday tourist adventures
Yes, so, we had hired Terra Diversa, a tour company, to take us to the train through El Nariz del Diablo (The Devil's Nose) where you get to ride on top of the train car as it takes you down steep switchbacks through the Andes. We were told it was a 4 hour drive to Alausi, and the train we wanted was at 11 am. We left the hotel at 6:15 am, with snacks and water, sweaters and sunscreen, and cameras for what was to be the most touristy day yet. The first thing we saw as we drove through colonial Cuenca was the indigenous women setting up their beautiful creations for Palm Sunday. I don't even know what Palm Sunday is, but they had what I thought were stalks of corn with the leaves woven into beautiful art. This picture is from the parade the day before, but is the only snapshot I have of any of it.
There were about a dozen women and about a hundred of these corn or palm leaf weavings lined up along a cobblestone road, the green plant art leaning against the old stones of a church. A great sight and we hadn't even gone anywhere yet. All day long we'd see women and girls carrying baskets woven of these green leaves or big woven stalks.
We left Cuenca on the "Panamerican Highway" which uses the term "highway" very loosely. It was more like a 2 lane road, with no yellow or white stripe down the middle, and people constantly passing one another whether there were curves or hills or not. Well, not constantly, because there wasn't all that much traffic. At some points it got downright steep, at other points it turned into a gravel road, and at most points it had so many potholes that it was extremely slow going. I realized that a 4 hour highway drive in Ecuador covers much less actual ground than a 4 hour highway drive in the states.
Along the road but still close to Cuenca were a variety of food stands being set up for the day. A roadside tent/tarp, some chickens on rotisseries, some other food cooking, and twice I saw a shocking site. A HUMONGOUS pig, I mean HUGE, dead, on its back, feet in the air, and people using what looked like a blowtorch to cook it so it would be ready later in the day for hungry travelers.
The Panamerican highway was also delightfully spotted with live pigs, sheep, dogs, cows, mules or burros with loads on their backs, colorfully dressed people tending to the above animals, and an occasional woman with a huge load of grain (wheat? corn? grass?) strapped to her back with a colorful serape. Eddie was a fantastic driver, the most careful driver of all the cars I'd been in in Ecuador (including Maya's host families!), and even so he almost hit a young boy who was chasing a dog across the road. Parts of the road were muddy, after all it is rainy season, and we saw a tour bus that had fallen over in the mud, leaning onto an embankment. It didn't look like anyone was hurt, they were simply trying to figure out what to do next.
This photo isn't one I took but resembles the people and animals we saw along the way, and the road wasn't usually that bad.
Eddie had one cassette tape in the car. The Doors. We were serenaded by "People are strange...," "Mojo Risin'," "Hello, I love you," over and over and over all the way through the Andes. Luckily Maya fell asleep and I popped my iPod headphones on after the first go round of the tape.
We ended in Alausi by 10:15, a wonderful, small town where all the mountain folk were coming for the Sunday produce and livestock market. There was also a crafts market at the train "station" along with the most disgusting, lack of privacy bathroom I've ever been in. One room, women step to the right side (and can close the door if you can breathe), men to the left with no doors to close and an old man came in to do his business while I was in there waiting for my turn. Ew. No toilet paper or paper towels, so (pardon my bluntness) I tore a mini-pad from my backpack in half for Maya and I each to use.
Anyway, here are some of my favorite pictures of the people of Alausi. There's supposed to be an accent over the i at the end of that word, but I can't figure out how to d that in LiveJournal.
And another big religious statue overlooking the city:
There were about a dozen women and about a hundred of these corn or palm leaf weavings lined up along a cobblestone road, the green plant art leaning against the old stones of a church. A great sight and we hadn't even gone anywhere yet. All day long we'd see women and girls carrying baskets woven of these green leaves or big woven stalks.
We left Cuenca on the "Panamerican Highway" which uses the term "highway" very loosely. It was more like a 2 lane road, with no yellow or white stripe down the middle, and people constantly passing one another whether there were curves or hills or not. Well, not constantly, because there wasn't all that much traffic. At some points it got downright steep, at other points it turned into a gravel road, and at most points it had so many potholes that it was extremely slow going. I realized that a 4 hour highway drive in Ecuador covers much less actual ground than a 4 hour highway drive in the states.
Along the road but still close to Cuenca were a variety of food stands being set up for the day. A roadside tent/tarp, some chickens on rotisseries, some other food cooking, and twice I saw a shocking site. A HUMONGOUS pig, I mean HUGE, dead, on its back, feet in the air, and people using what looked like a blowtorch to cook it so it would be ready later in the day for hungry travelers.
The Panamerican highway was also delightfully spotted with live pigs, sheep, dogs, cows, mules or burros with loads on their backs, colorfully dressed people tending to the above animals, and an occasional woman with a huge load of grain (wheat? corn? grass?) strapped to her back with a colorful serape. Eddie was a fantastic driver, the most careful driver of all the cars I'd been in in Ecuador (including Maya's host families!), and even so he almost hit a young boy who was chasing a dog across the road. Parts of the road were muddy, after all it is rainy season, and we saw a tour bus that had fallen over in the mud, leaning onto an embankment. It didn't look like anyone was hurt, they were simply trying to figure out what to do next.
This photo isn't one I took but resembles the people and animals we saw along the way, and the road wasn't usually that bad.
Eddie had one cassette tape in the car. The Doors. We were serenaded by "People are strange...," "Mojo Risin'," "Hello, I love you," over and over and over all the way through the Andes. Luckily Maya fell asleep and I popped my iPod headphones on after the first go round of the tape.
We ended in Alausi by 10:15, a wonderful, small town where all the mountain folk were coming for the Sunday produce and livestock market. There was also a crafts market at the train "station" along with the most disgusting, lack of privacy bathroom I've ever been in. One room, women step to the right side (and can close the door if you can breathe), men to the left with no doors to close and an old man came in to do his business while I was in there waiting for my turn. Ew. No toilet paper or paper towels, so (pardon my bluntness) I tore a mini-pad from my backpack in half for Maya and I each to use.
Anyway, here are some of my favorite pictures of the people of Alausi. There's supposed to be an accent over the i at the end of that word, but I can't figure out how to d that in LiveJournal.
And another big religious statue overlooking the city: