All the Way to Saraguro

The getting here was long.  I've now figured out that bus schedules are posted online, which I've never before seen anywhere in Latin America.  When we missed the 7:30 am bus for Cuenca by 15 minutes we had to wait around the bus station for the 9:30 bus.  It took 6.5 hours to get to Cuenca cruising through some of the most beautiful Andean Mountain scenery we've ever seen.  The bus makes a few short stops for the bathroom and lunch.  At bathroom stops, sometimes you can use the bus company office facilities, or you have to walk down the block to public restrooms. You always have to pay a small fee to use public bathrooms in Latin America.  They are staffed by an attendant who takes your money and gives you a wad of toilet paper.  We do always carry our own just in case because sometimes they don't give you any.  I'm holding a grudge against the ancient attendant in Alausi.  The cost of enterance was kind of blocked from view, so I gave her 1$ for both of us.  She just looked at me and put the coin in her pocket.  I asked her in Spansih for my change.  She said something I didn't understand.  I thought maybe she didn't have any change, but I could see a big box of change.  I asked her again for the change and she just said something, who knows what it was.  By now we really have to pee and we are worried the bus will leave without us, but I'm like, Lady, please give me my change! For reasons I still don't get, she would not give me my dang 70 cents.  Now I am wondering, do I start raising my voice? Do I reach my hand and get my own change? Do I even care about 70 fricken cents at this point?   We use the bathroom, and when we come out I ask her again for my change.  She smiles and that's all.  Should I fight this 85 year old woman whose job is to attend a public restroom? Forget about it.  I throw my hands up and I probably said something like  "For crying out loud lady!" And we walked away.  I'm getting mad thinking about it. 

Arriving in Cuenca, we ran around trying to find the bus company that was going to Saraguro.  In the US we just have one bus company and one ticket window.  Here, like most places in Latin America, there are many bus companies going every which way and you have to go from window to window looking for the company going to the place you need to go.  Lucky for us the next bus to Saraguro was in 15 minutes, with the next one being 3.5 hours later.  That journey was 3 hours long traveling mostly at 9,000 feet.  We arrived after dark, which I never like to do but we didn't have a choice.  We got a taxi to our hotel,  Achik Wasi,  which was situated on a hill above town.  Thee seemed to be only one hotel in town, but on others bookable online. We chose Achik Wasi because it is part of the larger community tourism project going on in Saraguro.  We were too tired to manage finding dinner, and there weren't any places to eat near the hotel.  It was freezing up there as well, probably 45 degrees, and with the wind howling at this altitude it was cold.  They did get us some hot tea which we drank and then promptly burrowed under many wool blankets and fell asleep.  In the morning I still didn't know how we would be getting to the house where we had arranged a home stay, but sure enough someone showed up and told us we'd get picked up at noon.

View from the hotel and a little breakfast. So cold you need a hat, and right after you take a shower and get dressed you need to put your coat back on.

We are now here in the home of George and Anita and their completely adorable 12 year old daughter.  The home is very cozy and clean, situated ab 10 minutes drive up then the hills above Saraguro in the Quisquinchir community.  

This one of several family homes that offer hmestays as part of the community tourism project, Saraurku.  They  made us a good lunch and then we went with her to milk the cow, which was a 10 minute walk up and down dirt roads.  She retrieved a calf from somewhere that she used to get the cow's milk flowing.  She shooed the calf away and got a full bucket of milk.  

Maya getting her farm animals fix.

We walked to a rickety shed in a field where she added some liquid to the milk that I think included lemon juice which acted to coagulate the casein protein (curds) in the milk. She wrapped up the bucket in a jacket and we went to feed both animals some cut up green bananas that she said made the milk sweet.  Back at the shed, she put her hands in the milk, mixed it slowly until curds appeared, and then gently squeezed and pressed the curds until they were in a large soft ball, separate from the liquid whey. 

She dumped the whey into a pan and fed it to the horse and the dog.  We headed back towards the house with the bucket full of cheese curds. 

On the way back we encountered the community preparing to practice for a big corn harvest festival that is to take place this weekend.  Everyone was dressed up in the traditional garb, and since they were in a parade I felt comfortable being a tourist and taking photos.  It was a pretty special sight. 

Night time brought another simple country meal and a gaze at the stars in the Southern Hemisphere.  You really haven't lived until you've experienced a different night sky than the one you see every day of your life at home.  It reminds me that I'm infantensimal and not really all that important.

Today we helped her harvest corn.  I noticed the corn field was planted in the Three Sisters tradition of Native North Americans, meaning corn, squash, and beans in the same field.  

We picked corn for about 2 hours and were utterly exhausted.  We've been napping after lunch ever since, even though she went back out to milk the cow.  

Tonight we are having dinner at Shamuico, which is an unlikely famous gastronomic delight in the middle of nowhere.  I suspect that will need its own post!