Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Ecuador Highlands

Local church in ???


Local bakery in ???
Huge pile of dough on table being worked by 5 people, rolling, folding and cutting the individual biscuits. Then putting stacks pans into a wood fired brick oven.






Sheep waiting in small pick-up truck out front of bakery



Threshing locally grown Quinoa from plants farmed totally buy hand:


Tina learns how to thresh Quinoa


Guinea Pigs, gotta love them!  Before dinner:


Guinea Pig FOR Dinner!

Meeting the old shoemaker who makes his sandals completely by hand.  Starting by making his own fibers from palm leaves.  Antonio (the community president) with the old shoemaker:

Stripping the palm fibers from the leaf


Braiding the fiber into yarn.  Antonio and Carol D.

Coil and tie the yarn into a sandal.  Called an Alpargata in Ecuador.  Espadrille in English.


With the shoemaker and our new pair of Alpargatas that he made:


Witnessing a shaman demonstrate how to "Cleanse" a person with health problems.
Mary Ellen volunteered to be the "guinea pig" for this demonstration which also included a real guinea pig as the main agent of cleansing and analysis for the shaman to determine the root cause of the ailment.





At the "Center of the World" where the Equator crosses Ecuador just north of Quito:


Our guide, Carlos, told us that it is possible to balance an egg on the head of a nail at "The Center of the World" due to the equal acceleration forces at the Equator.  He told us that centripetal and centrifugal forces are balanced along the Equator.


Beautiful mountain vista:


Greenhouses for growing those wonderful Ecuadorean roses:


More photos to come!

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