The picture on the right is pure gold because we took it trying to capture the essence of the scenery and unwittingly posed right next to a giiiiaant pile o poop.
This last week I was in a city called Otavalo. It's a very unique city in that it is mainly populated by indigenous Ecuadorians. Where as most south Americans have genealogical ties to Europe that stem from historical conquests from Spain and whatnot, everybody in Otavalo... doesn't. They descend straight from the Inca people. Emperors New Groove people.
Here's some google pictures of what EVERYone wears here. Every dude has long black hair down to their waist. And I mean everyone - we attended church and the whole congregation had long hair including the stake presidency. I asked our guide why, and told me rather matter-of-factly "it's our identity." Huh.
The stake president took us to his guinea pig farm. Guinea pig farm. Literally just hundreds of guinea pigs runnin around. Squeaking up a thunderstorm. I guess you could say that that was the most defining moment of my life.
I ate some pretty weird/delicious food, attended a traditional Otavaleño dance and learned some Kichwa (their language).
All in all, it was a pretty refreshing experience. For example: while attending the dance, me di cuenta de que the people here are super family oriented and everyone was dressed so modest. In American (and Latin) culture, if you want to dress fancy, you dress sexy. Often times super not modest. Here, when they dress fancy, they dress... noble. And elegant.
Such a humble and inspiring people. I learned tons of other stuff, including the correct and most dope way to invite people to your party, but that's all I feel like typing right now. Ali tuta, wauki!
No comments:
Post a Comment