Chapter 14: Saraguro

  7:00AM. Hiking pants. Hiking shoes. Hiking Shirt. Scarf. Water-proof jacket. 3 hours on the bus. Let's go climb something! 5 miles into the beginning of the trip, rest stop for gas and snacks. Loaf of chocolate bread, yogurt, chocolate amor wafers; back to the transportation vehicle. The staccato beats of the morning travel routine all around me, but smooth tranquil rhythms of Sufjan Steven's album "Feel the Illinoise" on my headphones. Stop for vista. Tour guide says on one side you can see the Andes Mountain range, the other side its possible to see the Pacific Ocean in the far distance on clear days. I'm calling bologna on that one, there was not a cloud in sight and no matter how far on the horizon I searched, I saw no horizon. So bologna. Bolgona I say! The Sufjan Stevens record ended. Album switch. This time to Seawolf's "White Water, White Bloom". Songs about Orion the hunter, lost love and glowing grass in the moonlight mixed with winding Andean mountain roads.

   We arrived in Saraguro, dropped a few of our things in the hotel then reloaded ourselves onto a different bus. This bus was especially different because it had wooden benches in open air aside from a tin roof to shelter the benches from rain. The benches were not very comfortable in the least and the road was bumpy. We stopped talk about an Indian dwelling. For the second leg of the open air bus ride we were allowed to climb onto the roof of the bus to sit up top for the duration of our travels. Surprisingly the roof made for a much smoother ride. The only obstacle was watching out for hanging branches that could hit faces or swipe cameras out from wayward hands. We disembarked from the tin roof and began a hike to end all hikes. Only our guide truly knew where we were going, the path was narrow, the scenery was beautiful and the clouds were scant in the sky. The whole hike reminded me of hiking through the Grand Canyon, complete with vertigo and the adrenaline. Since I know it was on the top of everyone's mind: yes I peed off the side of the mountain, you're welcome.

   Lunch was two hamburgers with papas fritas and mustard, either I was starving or I have rarely had hamburgers of similar caliber, so so good. After a break and lunch we set back the other way. The pressure had dropped during our break and those sneaky ecuadorian clouds had set in. We kept hearing thunder louder and louder as we hiked, it seemed to be approaching us, yet I did not see any lightning. We layered up with raincoats and scarfs and started hotelwards. It was a successful hike all around.

   We had a chance to rest for awhile, I took one of my best naps of this entire trip. I had some sort of dream revelation, but sadly I cannot recall what the revelation pertained to. By 7pm it was pitch-black outside and freezing. Before dinner we stopped at an indigenous textile workshop. They used large wooden looms to create intricate patterns and many shapes. They demonstrated the technique for us, showing how the pieces slide together to create a new line in the growing cloth, the worker's feet manouevering through the pedals to coordinate the next type of yarn to be used.

   Dinner was at a small family restaurant where we sat on long benches and at grey beans, rice, squeaky cheese, and chicken soup. After dinner we were treated to an Andean music demonstration. The players included a flautist, a percussionist, violin and guitar. They played and we danced about in a circle. Three songs later they asked us if we had anyone who could play music in our group. We elected Ross. Autumn, Isaac and I joined him in fumbling our way through a few songs. We started with Oxford Comma but couldn't remember one of the verses so we switched to first "Jolene" by Ray Lamontagne and then "Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying" by Belle and Sebastian. The Ecuadorains said although they couldn't understand the words, the music was beautiful and we put a lot of energy and feeling into the songs.

  The rest of the evening was spent sitting by our hotel's outdoor fire sipping Pilsener's. Pilsener is not a superb beer, but sometimes all you need is a crappy bottle of beer, a warm fire and good conversation.

                                                           ---

The next day the sun struck with a vengeance, it was hotter than hot. Any humidity in the air was instantly evaporated into the clouds miles above our heads. We took another hike, shorter this time, only 15 minutes or so to a small clearing where two women had set our blankets on the ground for a ritual. We spent the next hour or so participating in said ritual. It was interesting, to say the least. 

Ray Lamontagne
Jolene


Belle and Sebastian
Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying

Interlude 3: David Byrne Sightings

  Here in Cuenca I've seen all walks of life. I mean, its a big city, of course I have. For example on my walk to class the other day I saw a young businessman while I was waiting for a green light at a cross-walk. He looked to be about my age, wearing a pinstripe suit that looked a tad too large on him. He looked a bit like David Byrne at a Talking Heads concert in the 80's. The only thing that seemed to fit was the soft leather briefcase he carried at his side. The way he was carrying the briefcase made it seem that he'd grown to respect his tool-of-the-trade in  his short time in the business world. And I liked that: the slightly over sized pinstriped suit, the reverence for the briefcase, and more so the universality of being thrust into a business or professional world when you still look and feel a bit too young to be there. Thrust into a world of suits, coffee and cigarette breaks, cut-throat negotiations and rapid insincere name dropping when you still look a little young for the razor blade and a little out of place for the world of 5 o'clock shadows.

Talking Heads
Girlfriend is Better

Interlude 2: Cultural Universality

  Okay, I want you to sit for a second and ask yourself what you believe to be the most universal of cultural experiences. Those things that not only you experience, but also people around the world experience every day. Think hard, I'll give you a minute or two to ponder...Okay, have you thought of at least one thing? Good. I bet you've come up with some interesting answers.  Perhaps riding bicycles (that's probably up there), or eating meals together as a family(I could go either way on that one, I feel like that depends too much on the family in question), or even going to church, or walking a dog, or driving to work every morning. I think these are all good answers, but I've come to find that one of the most universal things right now is something completely other.  It seems that no matter where you go in the world, it is not possible to escape the Party Rock Anthem. Yes, I'm talking about the Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO. Whether you're in an airport, listening to the radio, walking on the street and happen to hear a stereo blasting, in the club, it doesn't matter: it is everywehre. Against all odds, LMFAO has truly created an anthem to unify the world.

LMFAO
Party Rock Anthem






edit: I just noticed they do a bit of 20's Charleston at one point in the video, awesome