Ecuador

Sunday 6/26/2011 - Family Time

We woke up at 7:30 a.m. and took our last showers and got packed up. Less than 24 hours from now, we would be heading for home.

At 9 o'clock we went outside and played with Sisa and Yupanqui. We had breakfast of a fried egg, plantain chips, rice, and fries with mora juice and coffee.

We asked if Antonio was ok and we were told yes. We were relieved. We learned that he had been hit above his right eye with a rock, and had required stitches. His eye was purple and swollen shut. Aida gathered a medicinal plant from the garden and made him a preparation to put on his eye, which brought the swelling down quite a bit.

We felt badly that the festivities had ended this way for Antonio, but he tried to downplay it. Aida and Rosa explained that this kind of thing happens every year. Violence erupts between communities, not surprisingly given the preponderance of alcohol and the intensity and machismo of the entire "taking of the square." But the violence seems to generally take place after dark, hence why the family had made sure that we were home by sundown on both days.

We went with Rosa and Sisa into Quiroga via pickup truck to get some Ibuprofen for Antonio. When we got there, we saw signs of last night's troubles - broken windows, tarps, and concrete blocks knocked over in the square. A door was being welded with a tiny welder tapped right into the electrical lines.

We chatted with Natalie's mother Rosita and some of their other friends. They were no doubt all catching up on the latest gossip surrounding last night's violent encounters. We saw the leader of the Morochos dancers and we told him that we would be leaving the next day. He thanked Craig for joining them in the dances and invited us back for next year's festival. We were really touched by the way the community had embraced us during Sisa's baptism and the Inti Raymi / San Juan festival.

It was Sunday morning, and there was a brass band out in front of the church. We went to the indoor Quiroga market but didn't find anything Rosa wanted. We went into the gorgeous church and sat for a while. It had a golden altar with neon lettering above it though it wasn't lit. People were lighting off fireworks outside and Sisa got very scared. We waited for Rosa's friends to finish their shopping, and then we all took a truck back to Morochos together.

All of the friends shook our hands and wished us a safe trip home. Natalie's mom asked if we could send her the pictures we took of Natalie. We were happy to oblige.

We got home and I plugged in my laptop in Aida's room. I looked over and saw Antonio in bed with a black puffy eye and a bandage over it. We said that we were sorry and asked if it hurt. He said not much. We asked a little bit later what time the car would come tomorrow. "Tomorrow? Not martes?" Oh no. Yes, it was Monday, not Tuesday, that we needed to go to the airport.

He said that after lunch we would go with Rosa to Otavalo to arrange the car. We had a lunch of zucchini soup,rice, lentils, salad, and some bitter greens with yellow flowers. Antonio joined us. He thanked us for everything. We gave them the remaining items that we had brought: our "business card", 3 tote bags from our work, some chocolate covered cranberries, and some stickers for Sisa.

After lunch, we took a truck to Quiroga with Rosa and Sisa. We thought we would continue on to Otavalo to arrange our ride to the airport, but Rosa it seemed that Rosa wanted to go shopping for cakes first. She saw some cakes in one bakery, but they were apparently not what she was looking for.

A bus was parked near us, and as we walked toward it, we thought that we would be getting on. We didn't. The bus started to pull away, and Rosa started running so that we could meet it at its next stop. We got on, and at least we had seats. We assumed we were going to Otavalo so that we could buy the cake and arrange the car in one fell swoop, but Rosa surprised us by getting off at Cotacachi.

We wandered around looking for bakeries. The one she wanted to go to was closed. We wandered around the whole square and side streets. It definitely was a different atmosphere on this sleepy Sunday than it had been during Inti Raymi / San Juan. Today was apparently a lull in the festivities. Rosa told us that there would be more dancing on Wednesday June 29 and Friday July 1. July 1, or warmi puncha (women's day), coincides with the feast day of Santa Lucia, and is the opportunity for women to dance. We asked Rosa if she would dance, and she laughed and said that she doesn't dance San Juan herself.

We could not find a cake which lived up to Rosa's standards. It became a quest, though Craig and I had no idea what we were looking for. All of the cakes looked good to us. I was getting overly fidgety because I wanted to make sure we had time to get to Otavalo to talk to the driver as Antonio had mentioned.

We exhausted all of the bakeries, and had to go back to one of the first ones to buy what felt like a 20 pound cake. Of course there were no handles on the box, and they didn't tie it up to make it easier to carry. Craig had to carefully carry the heavy box by holding its underside.

Rosa bought Sisa the most messy, high-maintenance snack possible: a yogurt with cereal bits to sprinkle into it. We then got on to a bus marked Otavalo and Quiroga. We must be on our way to Otavalo now. We joked that Rosa would forget Otavalo entirely, having found a cake, and get off in Quiroga instead.

Well, that's just what happened. We were thoroughly confused. We asked, "Aren't we supposed to meet the driver in Otavalo?" She said no; that the driver was here in Quiroga. We really are amused by the number of times we misunderstand things. We just have to trust and go with the flow.

We wandered around Quiroga with the cake and ended up in front of (apparently) the driver's house. Rosa knocked on a gate and a neighbor told us that he wasn't home. He gave Rosa the driver's phone number, and Rosa wrote down her information in a note which she left at the gate. By now it was 12 hours from when we needed the ride, and the driver didn't even know about us yet. We wondered if we would be stranded in Morochos.

Sisa finished her snack and then we took a pickup truck from Quiroga back to Morochos. We went to our room and texted Steve and wrote in the notebook.

For dinner we had spinach soup, delicious chicken breast, rice cooked in Coca Cola (?), seasoned potatoes, broccoli, and lettuce. At dinner Antonio's eye was still swollen shut and all black and blue.

After dinner, the cake was served. It was a farewell cake for us, to celebrate our last night before heading home. It was a white cake topped with whipped cream frosting, pieces of fresh fruit, and chocolate shavings. Our compadres said a lot of sweet things about us being a part of their family now. We thanked them for their hospitality, and for allowing us into their family. It had really been a lovely visit. We love the kids as if they were our own. It had been so nice to combine a traditional baptism and San Juan / Inti Raymi into a single trip. We have learned so much about their Kichwa culture, and we look forward to learning more in future visits.

They gave us lambs wool hats, alpaca scarves, two wall hangings, a hammock, and some bracelets to give our families. They are so sweet.

We chatted, and Antonio said that he hadn't had much tourist guide work lately, so he has been relying on income from his music. He said that some of his bandmates had been to New York, and he hoped to learn English so that he could visit the U.S. for music some day.

They had gotten in touch with the driver, and everything was arranged for early tomorrow morning. They told us that even though we needed to leave the house at 4 a.m. to get to the airport, they would all be waking up early to ride with us. It was totally unnecessary, and we told them that they should stay home and get some rest after the festivities of the past few days, but they insisted. That was so thoughtful of them!

Aida got some medicinal plants for Antonio to put on his eye. We saw his injury without the bandage and it looked like he had gotten a lot of stitches.

We said our goodnights and went to bed at 8:30. It would be an early morning!