Cuenca is a colonial town of great beauty. It was dedicated as a World Heritage Site
by Unesco. The streets are filled with indigenous people called Cholas. They are
mestizos, people of mixed race, who dress in their traditional regional costumes.
During the time of Colonialism, the mestizos were the most discriminated. The
Catholic Church considered the mestizos as people having no soul.
Cuenca is also a center for crafts. The famous Panama hat is produced in this town.
We did not visit the production site, but a car selling hats was catching our attention.
It was Carnival time when we visited Cuenca. During the three day holiday, people
spray each other with a white foam and splash each other with buckets of water. We
could see this custom in a little town north of Cuenca during a visit to a local market.
The women wear embroidered blouses with short colorful skirts. The skirts have a
hem.
A specific hem indicates the region the woman is from. The chola hat is most famous.
It is a straw hat stiffened with white color and a black band. The location of two
tangling balls indicate the marital status of the woman.
Cutting a rubber band at the local market
The variety of local fruit and vegetable is amazing. Granadilla, naranjilla, and tree
tomatoes belong to the fruit I have not seen before. On the way to the little town, we
saw many roasted pigs along the street. They are roasted for 6 hours with a blow
torch and sold to the passing people. Pork, beef and cuy (guinea pig) are popular in
the mountainous regions.
The preparation of the native Avocado was often astounding. We preferred to eat vegetarian.
– Text and pictures contributed by Garyo –