Thursday, June 19th, 2003 – Day 121
Latacunga (2,850m) is the capital of the Cotopaxi Province, with some 55,000 inhabitants and is a good base point for some interesting excursions such as the Cotopaxi volcano. The city has been destroyed three times in the past by the Cotopaxi volcano. In 1742; 1768 and in 1877. The volcano’s activity is zero at the moment and other eruptions are not expected for at least some decades more.
I was up by 6.00am again (this is becoming a habit) so that I could take a bus to Saquisili. This market is considered the most important market in Ecuador by the country’s economists and located next to Latacunga. Saquisili market located in 8 main plazas sells everything from food produce including, oranges, mandarin oranges, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, radishes, avocados, herbs, radishes, okra, red and yellow bananas it also sells meet produce such as pork, beef and mutton parts as well as screaming wild pigs that run around aimlessly in pens along with llamas, sheep and cattle although the latter is 1km from town. I went early as I wanted to avoid the tourist buses that come mid morning and also to see the animal market (it’s best to arrive before 07:00 to see this). The local Indian attire consists of small black hats and red poncho garments.
I walked to the main bus station (10 minutes and got a bus for .30 US. It took 15 minutes and I was there by 7.00am. It was easy to find the animal market by following the farmers leading animals there. It was very colorful with different areas for cattle, sheep/goats and pigs. A lot of business was been done. This market was ten times bigger and better than the animal market in Otvalo. The place was full and thank God not many tourists in sight. By 8.00am the tours buses from Quito were arriving. They were following each other around like sheep. Most were not used to animals. Some hotels (Hilton Colon and Quito) offer a two-hour tour to the Saquisil? Market on Thursdays. My Spanish has improved a bit and I was able to hold conversations with a few of the locals. By the way, in relation to my photos, I try to ask permission first. This is especially true of close ups and pictures of any local produce like the pigs heads. Some do refuse and it I have no problem with that. I would not like unsolicited photos of me.
I enjoyed the market. I saw two other main markets. The first was a produce market with potatoes, onions, carrot’s, corn etc. It was very busy. I had some nice fried food in the market called “Allullas con queso de hoja (biscuits with string cheese)” which is a specialty of the region. The other was a more tourist clothes market with sweaters etc. Didn’t say long there. As I wanted to travel to Pujili to see if and when the Corpus Christi celebrations were on, I left at 9.30am. This was a bit too early and I am a bit sorry I didn’t stay longer but knowing these markets, they start to die down by noon – so getting there as early as possible is the key. Even 6.00am is not too early.
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Click on the picture to see it in it´s original size
Saquisili – Ecuador – Market close to Latacunga. (19-06-2003)
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Click on the picture to see it in it´s original size
Saquisili – Ecuador – Market close to Latacunga. (19-06-2003)
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Click on the picture to see it in it´s original size
Saquisili – Ecuador – Market close to Latacunga. (19-06-2003)
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Click on the picture to see it in it´s original size
Saquisili – Ecuador – Market close to Latacunga. (19-06-2003)
I took a .30 US bus back to town and immediately got a bus to Pujili for .30 US. It is only a 11 minute journey. It is a sleepy pleasant town where markets on Tuesday and Sunday are the main focus. Kids were playing volleyball and everyone was painting their premises. I guessed there were no celebrations today and I enquired. They started tomorrow, Friday at 2.00pm and were on all day Saturday and Sunday with cock fights included (I had missed them in Otvalo). I decided to check out the town and toyed with the idea of booking accommodation here for Saturday night. I spent about an hour asking people. Most had no idea until I found a taxi driver. Their was only one place in town. It was off the main plaza. I saw the rooms which were not all that nice (rotten actually). The guy wanted seven Dollars. No point I thought as my hotel in town was the same price and I could take a .30 US bus back and forth. I walked around until 2.00pm and climbed the local vantage point overlooking the town. I took a bus back and spent the rest of the day strolling and buying a few small things like a new toothbrush, getting my shoes professionally cleaned and finding out about different markets taking place over the coming days. I also went on the NET for a while but very slow connection. Found an interesting article which says new research (2003) found that over 60,000 people died during the Shining Path insurgency in Peru during the 1980s.
Around 6.00pm, a band started up on the main plaza. I went down to reception and asked what was on. She said it wasn’t a Corpus Christi festival, but the ESPE festival. It seems it is on the 19th of every year and it organized by students who have just finished their exams. I went down and watched it pass. Indeed, while it had some traditional dancers, in the main it was students dressing up and enjoying themselves. The parade had about 30 floats and each college faculty like Medicine and Electronics had its own floats. It was good fun and most participants were drinking. Indeed as soon as they saw the “Gringo”, they usually forced some drink on me. Most of it was home brew alcohol. There was no way I could refuse and I didn’t want to insult them. It lasted about an hour and a half. It went around the Plaza and I could have watched the whole thing a second time.
All the students moved to another Plaza which I went to later (around 9.00pm) because they had fireworks. I never saw so many drunk people in my life. There were guys mainly falling down drunk (and a few fights). Nobody was drinking beer. They were all drinking home made alcohol or whiskey/vodka. Again I had the problem of people making conversation, trying out their English and offering me booze. I had a couple of drinks to be sociable and watched the great bus basic fireworks display. May of the fireworks were bamboo based and would often shoot over peoples heads or in many cases after exploding in mid air fall down to earth again on top of people. It was impressive though with many “Catherine Wheels” making white sparks fall over everyone. I was impressed but escaped the hordes as I was taking another early bus tomorrow.
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Click on the picture to see it in it´s original size
Latacunga – Ecuador – ESPE festival. (19-06-2003)
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Click on the picture to see it in it´s original size
Latacunga – Ecuador – ESPE festival. (19-06-2003)