In week two, we started settling into a bit of a rhythm. Rise at 6:30, breakfast at 7, working (mostly weeding) from 8 to 1:30, lunch, work, yoga, dinner, relax. We also visited a tiny village named Quiroga, with an unkown number of inhabitants and a public school. For us, this was very interesting because, for the first time, we saw a place with an exclusively indiginous population. A highlight here was the trip back to the farm, where the two sons of our only colleague picked us up and helped us get on the right bus, where we were perceived more alien than ever, but welcomed warmly by the many curious kids. What fun!
On another note, food has been a very interesting experience here: while not by choice, we are living vegetarian and mostly gluten free, just like our hosts. We are learning much about how lovely this can be in Ecuador, with Nelly preparing fantastic dishes 8 times a week for us. And wow, can she cook! Food is typically corn, rice and plantane based, and includes many pulses, vegetables and eggs. But most strikingly, Nelly commands a vast repertoire of tortilla recipes. Here, a tortilla is a sort of patty, anywhere between 3mm and 2cm thick, consisting of pretty much anything. Mashed potatoe, amaranth, quinoa, plantane, rice, corn - anything goes! Highly recommended to try at home, and do experiment with combining different tortillas with different dishes.
On the business side, we were able to get in contact with our first potential partners! Karla, founder of KUN Eco Fibras, is a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend back home. Based in Quito, she works together with her boyfriend William to produce fine alpaca products, both raw material and apparel. What makes the pair interesting for future cooperation is their approach: aside paying prices well above market standards, they have spent the past 5 years supporting communities in how to optimize their capacities in various ways, ranging from health, over crops, and all the way to alpacas of course. As Karla explained to us, this includes significant efforts to improve animal well-being, such as cautious sheering, a healthy diet and, simply, overall good treatment of the animal. Thus, KUN Eco Fibras achieves not only high-quality alpaca fibre for which shepherds are compensated fairly, but it also improves the lives in the communities on a broad scale, as well as the lives of the alpacas providing the precious fibre. And to top it off, they ensure that the environmental impact of the processes is minimal, for instance by using organic detergent to wash the fibre. For these many reasons, we see great potential in working together with this company, and look forward to meeting Karla and William in December!
Finally, we were presented with a unique opportunity to get to know an unusual piece of local culture when the only employee of the farm, Luis, invited us to join his family on a pilgrimage. Luis lives in an indigenous community some 15 minutes walk from the farm, and shares a small, basic house with his wife and two sons there. When he invited us, he explained that the hike would be from Quito to El Quinche. Approximately 6 hours of walking and chatting would lead us to the village, where we would visit the church, the befamed Virgen del Quinche (depicted below), and attend a mass, before taking the bus home. Enthused, we began researching the topic, finding that the pilgrimage is one of the biggest of the country, with some 800,000 participants every year, hiking to El Quinche from different starting points to unite in prayer.
When Luis announced the hike would take about 6 hours, we were mildly sceptical: he used to walk two hours to get to school as a child, and still today spends most of his time on his feet, while we ourselves are used to sitting at a desk to work, and only enjoy occasional leisurely hikes on weekends. But we had no idea just how challenging the experience would be.
Keeping up with Luis, who seemed intent on overtaking as many pilgrims as possible, we arrived at El Quinche around 2 a.m. - 8 hours after leaving. Shattered from the long hours of hiking on concrete, and wet and cold from rain and sweat, we sat down for the mass. At 4:30 a.m., we got on a bus, and arrived back at the farm at 7:30, completely drained. After a brief shower, all we could do was fall into bed, which we were unable to leave for the rest of the day.
Blisters, all kinds of pains and even nausea were the result of this intense experience, though it was a beautiful one. The sight of roads covered with pilgrims instead of cars was fascinating, and the entire trip we passed hundreds of vendors offering everything, from food and drink, over artisanal accessories, to actual soles for shoes too old to go on. And we will definitely never forget the feeling of walking the Andean highways and country roads by night, in sync with thousands and thousands of people, marching toward a shared destination.