Wednesday, February 8, 2012

To Otavalo again

Yesterday afternoon we met our neighbor Virginia. She'd been waiting to introduce herself until we'd settled in and acclimated to the altitude. Virginia is an artist; she's Italian born but has lived for years in the United States, in Hawaii and New York, and is now renting one of the five casas on the property for a year. One of her first kindnesses to us was to fix us a cup of coca tea, which she said is a required daily drink on a high-altitude trek or horseback ride. Art and I have had headaches since we got here, and Virginia said the tea would get rid of the headache.

It did! We woke up this morning at our regular home time and without a headache.

Her second kindness was to invite us to taxi with her to Otavalo again. We walked all over town as she did her errands. I stopped in a little shop and bought souvenirs for my twin granddaughters, my neighbor and my neighbor's daughter - plus something for me. Hand-made things, beautiful and locally made. We spent time in the fruit and vegetable market and picked up a container of some kind of fruit I can't identify. They grow inside a paper-thin cap.


I was conscientious about not taking photos of people, but Art was surreptitious and used his telephoto lens to capture some images:

9 comments:

Galen Pearl said...

Yes, when I was in Peru, we drank coca tea to help with headaches because of the high altitude. Of course, the leaves are what cocaine comes from, but in the tea it seems quite harmless and good for your health!

Nancy/BLissed-Out Grandma said...

I love the photos of the people and their wonderful clothing. Now I can really believe that you are in Ecuador! :-)

Terra said...

You are having a nice adventure, and the place you are living looks beautiful, both the estate and the village market.

DJan said...

Great pictures of people, Linda. I have to ask you about the orange thingies. In Puerto Rico we ate a fruit that looked similar to this, with a very large hard pit and you broke the skin and ate a small amount of very delicious pulp. Don't remember the name, but I loved them.

Other than the last picture, I loved ALL of them! :-)

Sally Wessely said...

These photos are just wonderful. With each one, I am reminded of my time Oaxaca, Mexico. You are really having a wonderful adventure. I'm glad the tea helped with the headaches.

Muffy's Marks said...

I think the unidentifiable fruit, might be ground cherries. Sweet and seedy? Love your photos, and thanks for taking us along on your adventure.

Out on the prairie said...

I never had a atltitude headache I never noticed, but it sounds like an easy rememdy.You have Ground Cherries.

Ms Sparrow said...

Thanks for sharing all the photos. It really gives a sense of the area. Are there a lot of English-speakers around?

Arkansas Patti said...

Hum, wonder if we could get coca tea here.
That fruit looks like Spanish limes that we ate in Key West. It had a hard seed in the center with very sweet pulp around the seed. Yummy.
Just loving the shots of the locals. Is that a hog skin? Yikes.