The People

Few people here are not indigenous. Generally they keep to their own. My Spanish instructor here has medium dark skin. I'll ask her on Monday if she is indigenous. I don't think so. She has a university degree. Most native people here have a business of some kind. 

Most people buy food on the street here -- food you can't even imagine. More later on this.

Men and women who don't have carts lug stuff around on their backs.

A smartly dressed family. Babies are carried around in white sheets tied in a mysterious way. You can't see tiny babies at all. Don't know how they breath.

Ecuador's future.

Antonio, the chef at SISA, the restaurant next door would like to study business and own his own restaurant one day. He doesn't have the money to attend university though. So I mentioned MOOCs -- Massive Online Open Courses to him. Many of these courses are translated into Spanish now. He doesn't speak English.

Students at the bus station in Riobamba.

A man pushing a cart loaded with his wares.

In the early morning the streets are deserted. Then all of a sudden around 8:30, huge metal doors slide up and low and behold, there's a store.

Few people out and about.

Street sellers.

Looking down into town.

These garbage trucks move around town in the evening playing a particular musical tune. Regular garbage is collected Monday, Wednesday and Friday, organic waste on alternate days. There is an active recycling program here.

A street market.

Street cleaners. This city is very clean. The countryside not so. But there are signs on the highway warning people not to pitch garbage our of their car windows -- much like the 50s and 60s at home.

The first barefooted person we've seen. If there are homeless peole here, they aren't visible.

Today is the Saturday fair -- an unbelievably enormous market selling products manufacted laboriously -- not in factories. Many streets are closed now for the fair. Set up started at 3:30 am on the street below our open hotel window, with the clanging of metal poles. Soon I'll post the amazing variety of products sold.

Tomorrow we're going to Cotacatchi, a small city 10 kilometers from here. Many Americans have settled there because the countryside is beautiful and it's quiet. They live in big houses in gated communities. They don't speak Spanish. The locals don't resent the Americans because they provide business opportunities. There are few bars and discotheques in Cotacatchi; so the young don't flock there. 

Hasta manana.

Freedom

We live such privileged and comfortable lives in Canada. We don't have pestilence or starvation. We don't have tyrannical rulers -- well we have a buffoon and a control freak. And we had the Upper and Lower Canada Rebellions of 1837 and 1838 and in 1885 Metis leader, Louis Riel led his people against the Canadian government in the Northwest. 

But we've suffered little more misery than this and most of us can hardly remember our history let alone having had experienced what little struggle our country has had. I often think of our luck to be Canadians when observing Ecuadorians living in their minuscle homes ekking out an existence.

On Thursday, over lunch we chatted with a couple who were on our train coach. He had taught philosophy and she social sciences. Rodrigo mentioned some of the improvements President Raphael Correa has brought to the Republic of Ecuador. They talked about how he had reduced poverty and unemployment here. 

"You have been through a lot of misery over the years here haven't you?" I asked. "Yes," Rodrigo said, "Times were very hard." I thought of how so many men and women had left the country for 15-20 years in the 1990s and of the struggle and misery they endured. 

Not far from our hotel in the centre of Otavalo, there's a mural depicting Ecuador's struggle.

The mural wall.

 The enslavement of the indigenous by the Spaniards. The indigenous were enslaved. Most lived and died in deplorable conditions.

They wanted to break free.

Mobilizing against Spanish rule.

Their leader, Simon Bolivar.  

He is represented in statues and street names everywhere. Bolivar was born in Venezuela into wealth, lived in France for a while and was a friend of Napoleon. But he returned to Venezuela in 1807 and when Napoleon named Joseph Bonaparte King of Spain and its colonies, which included Venezuela, Bolívar joined the resistance movement, fighting for control of the Americas, to wrest its control from Spain. 

Eventually he became "El Libertador", the Liberator, creating the Federation of Gran Columbia -- Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Ecuador. After some time, he was named Dictator of Peru and later he created Bolivia. So it's no wonder paintings of him are everywhere.

Tasting freedom

The dove of peace.

A new flag and emblem.

Creating The Declaration of Independence.

The mural was designed and painted by University of Otavalo students.

So much history here. 

Hasta pronto.

The Liberty Train

In these five short weeks we're only tickling the surface of this geographically small country. But because of the mountains and gorges that rise and tumble down forever, especially from the open window of a train, Ecuador feels vast. I can't imagine how workers built this train bed with pick axes and shovels in such a precarious area. I wonder how many stumbled over the edge back then.

Some of the workers who built the railway in 1926.

This bridge is a dizzying height above the river below. I steeled myself to look down and clenched my iPad as Ieaned out because it has no strap. Gads.

A train employee stands on top of the train watching for cows, trees and rocks on the tracks. The train had to stop because of a rock slide yesterday. Thanks goodness the fellow was watching.

We passed though five tunnels.

The construction of new communities like this makes Ecuador feels like it's on steroids. People are hopeful. The other night, a restaurant owner said that the massive highway construction projects are "just the tip of the iceberg" in Ecuador's progress.

This is a brand new train station.

Outside the station, a police officer gave the vendor women their packing orders, I suppose because they didn't have a licence.

We're here in Otavalo until Tuesday morning when we leave for Quito and our flight home next Thursday. Ecuador has grown on us.

More tomorrow. Happy Christmas shopping. Chao.