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A beautiful start to the day, a bit chilly but this is Otavalo at over 8,000 feet in elevation. Being chilly is the norm. We decided to start at the weaving workshop of a blackstrap weaver at the Tahuantinsuyo Weaving Workshop in Agato. Everything there is hand spun, hand dyed, and handwoven by master weaver Miguel Andrango. His wife, children and even grandchildren weave.
He knew some English and we know some Spanish, so we did well in understanding. Lori also has tried her hand at blackstrap weaving and understands the whole process as she spins wool as well. He learned this from his father in law, who was a very famous master weaver and just passed away last year. We looked at the difference between alpaca fibers and wool fibers. We looked at the plants they use to dye all of the wool naturally and then he got on his blackstrap loom and worked on a blanket for us. We loved this and he and his wife were so friendly. They also have a museum with all of her father's different woven items, back through the years. Did we purchase something? Well of course. What we both purchased were works of art, just amazing.
From there we headed to see the Condor Parque, to see if this may be something we want to do when Gladys and her brother arrive. Well, I think my GPS on my phone is having a difficult time with Spanish directions. It gets us to where we want to go, eventually. The Condor Parque is not too far from the workshop, but it is over hill over dale and all points in between, according to the gps. A majority of the roads between the workshop are dirt or cobblestone and big divets and holes are the norm. It kept wanting to take us right, we'd look at the road and say....no, no. Finally we decided, okay, let's turn it doesn't look too bad. Ohhhh where we fooled. At least we have a midsized all wheel drive suv, at least we had clearance as headed up this very steep road, straight up. We were doing great until the very top and the dirt got soft....we spun a bit, I hit the gas and we got enough grip to pop up on the next road. Laughing...yes, wondering if we should be more worried as we're were. The next part of the road would be like driving into Cataloochee in, let's say, 1940. Not too bad and we hit the cobblestone road for about 2 miles. Oh, and we also ran into a funeral procession before the hill and we moved very slowly for a long time and the people behind the hearse were walking.
From there, we headed to another supposedly artisan workshop, but it was just a store of stuff you find in the market. Didn't spend a lot of time there, but then we headed to San Antonio so Lori could get a preview of the wood carving done there. We will be going next week when Gladys arrives to help me with the buying for READ.
Our last stop was to the waterfall at Fakcha Llakta, which is part of the Inti Raymi celebrations going on across parts of Ecuador and many celebrations in Otavalo. It is a religious ceremony of the Inca Empire in honor of the go Inti. It's the celebration of the winter solstice and focuses on giving back to Pacha Mama, Mother Earth. A big celebration takes place at the waterfall, with food, drink, and bathing in the pools below the waterfall. We were a bit later, as we arrived later in the afternoon and things were slowing starting. They will be celebrating until late tonight.
Once we were at the waterfall, we crossed on a bridge and walked down the river aways, though high above the river. There were some buildings and a man guided us to an Incan museum. The woman who was to be our guide (Spanish only) took us into a cave, the museum and closed the metal doors behind us. Now, Lori and I have listened to murder podcasts and I watch my fair share of murder shows and without saying it out loud, we both wondered if we had made the smarted move. We have fun, we think the lady was knowledgeable. We seemed to understand each other and it was a fun, but maybe not the smartest thing to blindly follow a woman into a cave that ended with an altar.
A note about the pools at the waterfall. During this time, people bath in the pools downriver from the waterfall. If you go in your underwear, you cleanse away all the bad things of the year. If you go naked, you cleanse your soul. We saw nothing but some kids playing in what had to be freezing water. Maybe the bathing in underwear and naked happens tonight after the drinking guarango a drink made from the sweet water from an agave plant.
The road we had to take to the waterfall, from where we were, was the exact road we took to get to the weaving workshop and afterwards. Luckily it was a right turn not the left, and a very long drive on a cobblestone road. We've decided that these unplanned things have really made our trip. No stress, just laughter and learning so much!
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