From the unrelenting heat in Central America, we flew into the cool highlands of the Andes mountains in Ecuador, South America.  We had a hike planned in Peru in about a month, so we followed a pretty tight schedule to see all of the major sights in Ecuador.

All of these pictures were taken with film cameras while I was without my digital.  We had very bad luck getting them processed.  Several are out of proportion, off-color, and scratched up.  Worst of all, they lost a roll of our favorites from a local farmer's market!

Shannon's Blog Entry from September 23rd

On Thursday, we visited the local market at Saquisili. Though most of the trade in the market was like that in Central America, I was thrilled to find some completely different crafts. There were ponchos, sweaters, purses, dolls, and slippers made from llama and alpaca, thick woven blankets and tapestry, Andean pottery and masks, carved wooden kitchenware and figurines, and wooden wind instruments.

The people were also very different. The indigenous people of Ecuador wear red ponchos and narrow-brimmed felt hats with feathers in the bands. The women wear their long black hair in one or two braids down their backs, long, dark skirts, and colorful scarves and socks. They have red cheeks, chapped lips, and cracked hands and feet from the cold weather.

The meat market was horrific! The animals were slaughtered fresh in the morning. And the whole bloody carcass was on display at the market! Customers would ask for a certain cut of meat, and could watch as the meat was carved from the body of the animal right in front of them.

There were also many cute, live guinea pigs for sale. Here is where we learned that guinea pig is a common meat dish in South America. Yuck!

Our film from here was lost, so I'm including a couple links to some amazing photos from other sites:

...I asked her why the bus had so continuously and irritatingly honked its horn from when it arrived in the town at 5am right up until the minute it left at about 5:45am. I was sure it must be so frustrating to the residents of the town to be woken up and have to hear that horrible sound for so long so early in the morning. But she told me that the purpose of the honking was to wake up the town. The people of this tiny, poor village don’t have alarm clocks. They rely on the honking to wake them up so that they can catch the bus to the market on Sundays!

insinlivi church with endeared wooden carved front doors	townsfolk waiting on a bus	in our cozy living room
my guide and his horse that carried our backpacks	view of the valley	llamas grazing
women carrying bricks. the whole town seems to be out pitching in to build someone a new home today	quilotoa crater	women selling woven goods

Riobamba   (October 1, 2004)

We took a train from in through the Andes in Southern Ecuador, leaving from the town of Riobomba at 7 in the morning, and passing through villages, farms, and open countryside on its way south to the supposed engineering feat called Nariz del Diablo, or Devil’s Nose. In order to descend these vertical cliffs, the engineers created a series of switchbacks, in which the train zigzags, reversing direction back-and-forth down the mountain – the system works fine for the 6-wagon train that we were riding, but I think the concept would break down on anything longer.

Our train consisted of the engine, 4 box-cars fitted with railing on the roof where most of us traveled, and a caboose with passenger seating for those unfit to climb onto the roof. The train runs three times a week, and it seems that no one, from men working the fields to old women carrying loads of grass on their backs can avoid stopping their work to smile and wave. Dogs had fun chasing the train, but the children in the most remote villages loved the train the most. They waited on their rooftops or near the tracks, some of the tiny girls dressed in their Sunday best, but most wearing dirty, worn clothing.

Other kids, who would catch the bus back to Riobomba after the ride, sold us lollipops to throw from the roof. It felt like Halloween, and we and the children enjoyed the exchange.

The tracks don’t appear to have had any maintenance since they were built nearly 100 years ago. Nearly all of the railroad ties have rotted away and the tracks are sinking into the ground. The first time that the train derailed, I went down and looked to find the engine and most of the boxcars several inches off the tracks. I was ready to get my things and climb up to the nearby highway to wait for a bus. Within moments, the villagers from the nearby town were on the tracks to sell us banana or cheese-filled fried empanadas for a quarter a piece. It turns out that derailments on this train are business as usual. Several men riding along on the train quickly dug out the wheels and placed rocks and heavy steel wedges – that required two men to carry from the boxcars – under the train wheels. Within 25 minutes, the train was moving. First, the engine and soon each of the cars were shifted back onto the tracks – considering the weight of the train, the operation was simply amazing!

When the second and third derailments occurred, we were all much less shocked. The final time the tracks under the engine sunk at least 6 inches into the ground and the engine grill was buried into the ground. Again, with perfect efficiency, the workers descended with their tools and had us moving again in 10 minutes! With a couple hundred foreigners riding on the roof, this train is just a disaster in the waiting. I’m just happy that neither of the derailments happened on the steep Devil’s Nose decent.