Today we had breakfast pretty early because we were starting on our way to Saragura. At breakfast Tait mentioned that he would like us all to try to make one or more Hycou’s about this trip so that he can post them on the course website. A hycou is basically a three-line poem with the first and third line being five syllable and the second line being seven syllables. It was about a two-hour ride to Saragura and it was another windy and bumpy ride, but this gave us time to think about out hycou’s. We got there and were able to check into our hotel right away. When we got up to our room, we had an amazing view of the city of Saragura, and out room had five beds and two bathrooms, which was crazy to us.
View from the window in our room
After checking into the hotel, we headed on our way to our first stop of the day which was to the hat factory. On our way Diego was telling us different information about the indigenous people. The Incas came from south Peru and fought a war but lost. They then picked up troops and came back after ten years; these people are the Saragura. There are 12 communities in Saragura, and they are all completely different from the city. The Saragura flag actually looks like the pride flag we have but their flag actually represents the different communities all over South America. The clothes here are very expensive and are mostly made by hand, which we visited later in the day. The poncho’s that the women wear can actually cost over 1,000 dollars. As well as, the women wear a pin that can actually cost from $500 to $750. The people are actually able to get a visa and go sell their textiles and come back very easily. They also use sheep wool to make their hats, which I will discuss more in depth later. The corn that is grown here provides phosphorus for us and Saragura actually means corn gold. When driving through the city you can see how they have many fields of crops. There are actually 800 species of potatoes and most of them are grown here. When harvesting their crops, they can pay for a tractor which can cost almost $25 an hour, so they do most of their harvesting by hand. As well as the big fields of crops, most of the houses will have a small garden for their spices and kitchen needs.
The bus we took around town
After about a half hour we made it to the hat factory which is where Francisco would show us the process of how the hats are made out of sheep wool. Francisco has been working for 23 years and makes the most famous hats in Saragura. The process to make one hat can take up to two days, but they make more than one had at a time and do each step on a different day. When making the hats, each hat uses about one pound of wool.
Steps to making hats:
Step 1
Sheer the sheep’s, then boil to take out the fat
Step 2
Separate the wool fibers
Used to do this by hand but they now have a tool to do this
Step 3
Use scissors to cut the separated wool fibers into thin pieces vertically and horizontally
Step 4
Open the wool using a tool made by them
This will release particles, so that the fibers can stick together
Step 5
Lay out the fibers into layers for the hat
Need to make ten layers for each hat
Step 6
Press the wool fibers together on a steam table
This can take up to three hours by hand or if done by them machine can take even longer
Must open and check to see if there are any open spots in the wool
Step 7
The wool is washed and after it is hot will be placed in a mold
Will places ropes around to create the shape and help create pressure
Step 8
The hat is painted with a layer of white glue mixed with cornstarch
Step 9
Placed back on the steam to give it the shape of the hat
Step 10
Uses a tool to mark where to cut the brim for the hat
Cuts the brim by hand
The brim will be 7.5 cm
Step 11
Presses the hate on the steam table again to make the brim flat
Polishes the wool on the outside, so it can be painted
Step 12
Paint the hat for two layers
When doing the black spots, they use a special wax from bees in the Amazon.
After the hat factory we headed to lunch. We had about an hour ride to lunch because we were having lunch with the indigenous people. For lunch we ate guinea pig, which is seen as a special dish for them that is only eaten on special occasions. The guinea pig was actually very good, and I really enjoyed it, the only part I didn’t like was the skin. After lunch they had a small table of handmade beaded jewelry that was made by them, so we all checked it out. Next we had agave juice, which when fermented for around three days can taste like tequila, but ours was not fermented. The agave juice is known as mother nature’s juice. The agave kind of taste like a sweeter beer almost but I thought it was pretty good. Then we headed back to the hotel, and we actually were allowed to ride on top of the bus which was so much fun.
When we got back to the hotel, we had a presentation about the Saraurku tourism. They started their tourism project in the year 2000 and an organization gave them 200,000 dollars to work with different communities. To be able to in the tourism business they had to get their tourcert certification. They get this by people observing their tours and then making recommendations. Their program was developed in four years with four main steps. The first step is to make organization with different communities, that want to participate, to develop tourism and then sign deals. Second, they will decide which community would like to do each service such as hotels, restaurants, and teaching kids about tourism. Third, they invest into the places and work on how they will make the different services that are being toured better. The last step is promoting ad commercializing. After they are all started up, the profits that are made goes to the workers, restoration, and to the struggling local families. The money is also used to put better values and to help the communities with reforestation, and better teachers. After the presentation we headed back to our rooms, and got in warm clothes, because we were going to be outside for the rest of the night. First, we headed to the mama ross house which is where some textiles are made. They showed us the process of how they make them. They start off the same way as they started off with making the hats, by opening up and layering the fibers. Next they spin the fibers, so they are in like strands and dye the strands using natural colors. After this they start making the textiles, whether it is a shawl, which will be thinner fibers, or a rug, which would be thicker fibers. Making a rug can take almost two to three weeks and will only sell for about $40. We then headed on our way to our next stop.
Next, we headed to where we would be having dinner. I thought it was interesting that the utensils that we have used were all wooden and you could tell they were handmade. After dinner is when the singing and dancing started. We had a family band perform for us songs from their culture. We then were able to try the dance moves that they would do to these songs which was so much fun. After this we headed back to the hotel because it was already very late.
My Hycou: Jumping through the air Monkeys swing from tree to tree Stealing bananas *It was so amazing to see a monkey jump from tree to tree just to eat these bananas. He was barley phased by the fact that we were all there watching him. It was as if he knew we would not hurt him. Nature here in Ecuador and the Galápagos is so unaffected by our presence in front of them*