Our second trip of Semana Santa took Emily and I up into the mountains for a welcome few days walking in the fresh air surrounded by greenery and peaceful countryside sounds. After a stop-over in Ambato we headed to Latacunga to stock up on water and snacks for the walk then caught the bus to our first stop, the world famous galleries of Tigua, where you can see traditional painted masks, drums, feathers and animal skins:
In Alfredo Toaquiza's gallery we saw his daughter painting and spent ages admiring all the different paintings. There was also a strange incident where both Emily and I felt indinant and angry at a rude Californian-living Russian who haggled unrepentedly over a wooden sun through his translator. We stepped in, me telling him (with deliberate politeness despite trembling with anger!) that these are known to be the best prices in Ecuador (info gathered from the Rough Planet guidebook!) and saying to respect the artist's work! The girl stuck to her price, thankfully, and the Russian bought the piece in the end.
This style of "naïve" paintings show scenes from everyday life in the indigenous communities in the Andes of Ecuador such as sowing crops, tending flocks of sheep and llama, celebrating festivals like Corpus Christi in July, which is apparently a fusion of Catholic practice and ancient religious customs.
In most paintings the backgrounds show local mountains or the Laguna Quilotoa or the local volcano Cotopaxi (like in this set of table and chairs below):
Contemporary scenes are also painted, like the scenes below:
(Left) Local indigenous people resisting the armed forces of a previous Ecuadorian president (Ms. Toaquiza wasn't sure which one) (right) President Obama and indigenous Ecuadorians in front of a background of the Whitehouse and Cotopaxi.
Number 21 in a series of paintings depiciting the customs and traditions of life in this particular region of the Andes, from birth to music, to farm work and schooling: "The indigenous children in the communities, we continue learning new teachings."
I personally felt love the paintings which include images of Pachamama ("Mother Earth" or the "Feminine Spirit of fertility who regulates the seasons and all of nature") and Pachamak (the "Masculine Spirit of creation who protects and cares for the universe"), scratched into the sky or the mountains in monochrome.
Having passed hours absorbed in all this colour and history in the galleries, Emily and I began walking, this day an hour or so downhill… and up and down again when we got a little bit confused about where we were going, looking for an entry to the Posada del Tigua that the Lonely Planet claimed was at km 49 but turned out to be a lot further downhill… luckily local folks kept reassuring us that the Posada was just that bit ahead, so we kept going til we found it!
Finally arrriving at the Posada we were given a really warm welcome from the ranch owner Margarita and her 3 sons. Stephen showed us around the farm, first showing us how to hand milk a cow and explaining how although he prefers machine milking because it takes all the milk from the cow, lowering the risk of an infection caused by milk left to go off in their udders, the local families who work on the farm still prefer to milk by hand. As Emily and I very tentatively milked one-handed two small girls were vigorously and quickly filling their buckets and eyeing us curiously.
Stephen also showed us the three groupings of cattle: first, the calves, a mixture of male and females, second the 'adolescents', where there are only females, the males having been sold for meat, and third the adult female milk cows. Stephen explained that once a calf is born the new mother feeds it just once before being moved to the adult pen. He said that they have one bull, but actually they prefer the method of artificial ensemination because it avoids the cows getting 'squashed' by the bulls weight and also avoids inbreeding health issues amongst the animals.
He also showed us the sheep, most of these are Merino sheep, used for meat and wool (recognise the name? Merino Wool?), and the llamas (the 3 animals in the front of the photo below left) and a very similar creature to a llama that I've forgotten it's name (the 3 creature in the distance behind the llamas in the photo below left).
Later at night, after a delicious home cooked meal and fresh local spring water, Emily and I played rounds and hilarious rounds of cards with Stephen and his brother by the wood burner in the main farmhouse. And in the morning after eating fresh fruit and home-made yoghurt, toffee, cheese and bread we set off with our Quilotoan guide José onto a 6 hour hike through the mountains, seeing scene after scene of local farm life and recognising this mountain we'd spotted in many of the Tiguan paintings:
About halfway along the route we had a deep descent down the sides of a canyon, crossed the river with bare feet and jeans rolled up and José's balancing hand, and then used tree-branch staffs that José pulled from trees for us to climb up the steep facing side.
You can see some of our route down the canyon here.
And finally, 6 hours and 16km later (and about 10 blisters for Emily's poor feet!) we made it to the spectacular view of the crater lake of Laguna Quilotoa and the town filled with artisan shops and hostels.
After the sweaty exertions of the hike, as the mist and chill set into Quilotoa, Emily and I were very glad to find a hostel that had not only steaming hot showers, but wood burners in every room!
We woke up the next day noticing that we were feeling the effects of the 3,600m altitude (I had an achey head and Emily was all congested), but with plenty of water and Emily's blisters cushioned in plasters we head down into the crater to spend the day by the lake edge.
There were a few dogs wandering around by the lake, including one golden puppy that had accompanied us all the way down from the viewpoint in the morning and then this gorgeous puppy we named Dog-Sheep who we fed bread roll.
We headed out on the lake in a kayak, which I learned to my surprise is in fact much quicker than walking, and very good exercise for the arms - Emily said it was the perfect compliment to all the leg work from walking.
And for the finale to these hiking dayswe hiked a slow hour back out from the crater before getting a ride from José's sons to the nearest town Zumbahua where we caught the bus to Latacunga and from there to Ambato and finally from there to Guayaquil, arriving in at 1.30am.
A really great peaceful few days away from the city.
Thanks Emily for the good company and thanks Pachamama for being with us all the way :-)
