Hello World! We are Socialpaca, and this is our first blog entry. On this blog, you will learn about developing an ethical wardrobe, alpacas, textile care, our journey and more.
We are two brothers from Munich, Germany, and we want to improve the lives of artisans and alpaca farmers in Ecuador and Peru by offering adequate pay for high-quality materials and skilled craftsmanship. Our customers make this possible, and they benefit from high-quality alpaca fibre products with a transparent background.
There is a journey of continuous improvement ahead of us. As much as we would like to offer perfectly "fair" products, we won't be able to build fully transparent supply chains as the small startup we are now. In addition, what is fair changes from year to year and from person to person, so we commit to continuous dialogue with all our suppliers. This is how we work to be as ethical as possible.
Now, we stand at the very beginning. After arriving in Quito in October, we travelled to Cotacachi, a small town near which we currently work on a farm in return for food and shelter. At first glance, Cotacachi may seem an unsuspecting countryside town: situated at about 2,300m, it only has around 8,000 inhabitants.
But Cotacachi lies in the Otavalo region, home to one of the country's biggest and most famed markets and many skilled artisans of all crafts, including weavers working with alpaca yarns.
So here we begin. Life on the farm contrasts the modern urban life we are used to: we have no electricity, WiFi and mobile reception. Water is often scarce, meals need to be planned carefully, and at night, we are to lock our door, despite the bolted gateway that protects the premise.
To earn our keep, we do physical work removing tree stumps, tilling earth or weeding. In return, we enjoy a spacious shed, fresh air and a beautiful, peaceful surrounding. All of this contrasts pleasantly to the intense, bustling and cramped city lives we are largely used to, and we are learning many valuable lessons about how different life can be in a different setting. Our hosts live in the main house, where we can access solar electricity, eat some of our meals, and get to know these lovely people.
In this first week, we learned much about the physical strain of working on a farm, the concessions that life on the countryside can entail, and the beauties of it. That said, we experienced a very romanticised version here: our hosts chose to the city for a life on the countryside, and they financed their dream with more than many rural-born people will make in their lifetimes.
Our hosts are a great fit for us, not just personally. When they learned of our project, they offered to help us build our network with the locals. In the next weeks, they will help us meet with weavers and knitters, introducing us to the world of communities that they have familiarised themselves with over decades. We can't wait to get started.