San Clemente

This weekend the group went to an indigenous community called San Clemente, close to a city called Imbabura. It was really neat and a life-changing experience. The people, the food, the way of life, are all so interesting and so different than what I'm used to.

We started out the trip with breakfast at a place called "Café de la vaca" (the Cow Cafe) near this beautiful volcano called Cayambe. 

Upon arrival at the community we ate a huge lunch and chatted with the locals, who hand embroider all their blouses and shirts.

The rest of the day consisted of taking a history tour of the village (which used to be a hacienda with different huasipungos aka almost like slavery until the last 25 years...) and met our host family for the weekend. My friend Tawanna and I stayed with Theresa and Ramiro, and their three daughters Jessica (17), Evelyn (16) and Nayeli (4). 

The next morning we woke up at 5:30 to help make tortillas and milk the cow before breakfast. 

Then we each got the opportunity to till a field.

After tilling a field, we drove a little bit and then hiked to the top of a mountain to perform a special ceremony to mark the beginning of the fall solstice and planting season. The ceremony took place on top of the ruins of Incan ancestors. When the Spanish came into Ecuador and much of Latin America, they literally buried Native temples and other landmarks in dirt in order to erase the culture. So, while we were standing on top of a dirt mound, there was some sort of ancient ruin under all the earth.

After the ceremony we ate another huge lunch then hiked down and arrived at the community just in time for the Sweat Lodge ceremony in order to cleanse our bodies and our minds. There was singing and chanting and sweating and more singing, and was very liberating, albeit scary at some points because you couldn't breath.

Then, on Saturday morning we woke up and dressed ourselves in the traditional dress and went to make lunch with the rest of the community.

Preparing lunch with the llamas.

Lunch consisted of cabbage, corn, potatoes, pork, chicken, and salad. Plus some other tasty things

In order to cook all the food, the men of the community dug a huge hole in the ground, filled it with hot rocks and the food, then buried it all again. We danced on top of the mound for two hours, dug up the food, and feasted until we all fell asleep in the grass.

That night we had a medicinal chat with a local midwife with real life role play (birthing techniques are a lot more natural and look a lot more painful...), and then the local medicine man came to heal two lucky members of our group. How did he diagnose them? He took a live cuy (guinea pig) and shook it all over the volunteer's body until the cuy absorbed the sickness and died. He then skinned it with his bare hands and examined the cuy for signs of damage. It was really graphic and gross. Do I believe it? Not really, but it was an interesting experience.

Then we danced some more. 

Sunday morning we woke up and had a goodbye ceremony where our families gave us these beautiful scarves. Staying with the family was very nice and a great experience.

We then traveled to an ecological reserve called Cotacachi-Cayapas, which is a volcanic crater filled with water and surrounded by beautiful scenery.

We took a boat ride around the lagoon, complete with fake roses and all.

Not to mention the orange life vests were very flattering on everyone.

To end the trip, we visited the market town of Otavalo, known for it's street market full of things like alpaca sweaters, trinkets, and tapestries. 

It was a long weekend, but sure worth it. I hope you had a good weekend too!