Week in peguche/otovalo

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Hello all,
So the past couple days have been great!! We left Quito early wednesday am to get to a small town of Peguche, near Otovalo where we will be for a week. The bus drive was beautiful in the mountains, but of course with my sensitive vestibular system I was nauseated. Fortunately it was a short ride about 2 hrs and we stopped for cherimoyas along the way! cherimoya is fruit described as a luscious apple although it looks like an avocado on the outside. I´ve actually had cherimoya in india plenty of times and my mom loves it so she finds it in america every once and awhile. We arrived in peguche by 1030am and had time tovisit the waterfall that is really close by. I will have to go back to go the top of it, but then we had an amazing lunch. Our hostels are decent, just a little cold at night, but I got tons of hot water when I showered yesterday so that was amazing!! We then visited this older couple that does traditional weaving a dying art form in ecuador. It was awesome to see it. And they sold fans and mats for $2-3 each. then we went and saw another elderly couple and their wool making business which is all done by hand. it was amazing to see the effort that goes into making wool clothings, scarves, etc. I took tons of pics and will share them later. All the girls were really excited to buy scarves for really cheap!!
We then went to Zulay´s house. so Zulay is an otovaljan who had a documentary made on her life and tradition in the 80s that we actually had seen the night before. We had no idea were actulaly gonna meet her!!! She lived abroad for awhile and is very educated. she is back here now trying to preserve her culture. She arranged the weaving and cotton trips for us. I bought her dvd bc it tells so much about Ecuadorian tradition and culture. She also started the first tourist agency in peguche...just another way to make money and keep the town afloat. I could talk for hours about that stuff, but I guess when I get back to the states i can tell u all more about it.
Dinner was awesome and we had these patties made our of quinoa (i think it´s spelled the same in english), a very highin protein grain that I had just heard of one week before leaving the states and my mom was making it a lot. I love it...sooo good and perfect for a vegetarian. also during dinner we had traditional musicians come serenade us. It was fun and there is this song they played and that i heard on the documentary that I actually have on an ecuadorian CD that Neha bought years ago!!! i was so excited to know a song!!!
This am we came into otovalo and toured a clinic that has both western docs and traditional healers. The traditional stuff was interested. Examples: they use eggs to ward off fright..which means evil spirit; they rub a live guinea pig all over your body to figure out your illness and then cut the pig open and check the organs and it supposedly has what you have thus giving the diagnosis; they also have a vertical birthing center...very interesting! the hospital started it afew years ago and its exactly like what it sounds...you stand up while giving birth!! I think there might actually be some medical benefit to this and a lot of us are interested in learning more about it eventually.
We were gonna tour a hospital afterwards, but the tour and the doc got busy in a meeting, so we will postpone that. I currently have some time before my spanish class which is always a bit stressful. There is so much to learn but not enough time. Although i am learning words by just walking around town and listening to everyone.
I heard the midwest has been hit hard w snow. I hope everyone is safe and enjoying the snow!
Bueños Dias!
Nidhi

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