SigSig, Ecuador

Marsha and Juan

SHARLA: Today, we woke up early and ate a breakfast of oatmeal and peanut butter in preparation for our guided hike today. Our guide, Juan, from TerraDiversa Tours, was extremely knowledgeable about the area flora and fauna. 

Lady Slippers

We stopped in this little town and had a
roadside pancake made by this young girl.

We drove for a couple of hours through the beautiful countryside, and through the historic town of SigSig. Up a dirt road for about 4 kilometers, we began our descent by foot from about 10,000 feet.

The walk was beautiful and fairly easy. We walked for about 2 hours and stopped for our sack lunch near an old church. One of the elderly indigenous ladies came down and just plopped down next to me. Her name was Maria, and she thinks she is 70 years old, but she's not sure. She noticed us walking down above her house, especially Marsha's blonde hair, and wanted to come meet us. Apparently, we are some of the very first foreigners she has ever met. She was so friendly, and so sweet. She has never worn shoes....EVER. She said that when she has tried to wear them, she trips in them, so she just walks barefooted everywhere. She laughed and giggled with her toothless grin. What a breath of fresh air!



We finished our lunch, and then drove down a ways where we began a walking tour of some ancient ruins. We drove back to Cuenca and arrived about 4:00pm. Jessica prepared us a wonderful vegetable soup, and we ate two bowls each!

What...a...wonderful...day!!!

Oh, as a side note, the country is back to normal, more or less. The president is back in office, businesses are open, and the airports have reopened.

marsha: well, we did our hike outside of cuenca today. we drove thru the windy mountain roads thru amazing little villages where the local women were weaving panama hats. there were scattered fruit markets and business owners hustled to sell their goods. a little girl was making tortillas (what i would call a pancake) on her front porch. we bought some for 35 cents each. they have fruit trees with fruit they call tomatoes. they are shaped similar to a rom a but look more like a nectarine. amazing!!! the men were out working in their fields with their cow-pulled plows. there were pigs, chickens and horses. my daddy would love the little farms here!!! we had an excellent guide who was very knowledgeable. we met a little lady along the way who joined us on the grass for lunch. she had no teeth but managed to dig pieces of apple out with her thumbs and gum it down. she took her sandwich home with her for later. she said she didn't know how old she was but thought about 70. her little feet looked like a pair of shoes with toes drawn on them. she had never worn shoes and it looked like it. it was a fun day and things seem to have settled down as far as the police action goes so don't worry about us. more to follow......