Sometimes our Spanish is Lacking but This Was a Really Great Opportunity

Tonight will be day 5 in Cuenca. I discovered that though this city is probably my favourite I am ready to get going. With visions of hiking in Peru and being near the coast ( aka warm weather) I´m finding it hard to be in the here and now.

Yesterday the sun finally made an appearance, after a week with out it. It warms up beautifully and the parks spring to life with people playing soccer and volleyball. Cuenca is a town renowned for it´s colonial buildings. But that´s not all it offers! Rumbling rivers, mountainous peaks, lots of green space and quaint places to enjoy a meal, mostly without the influence of tourism. There are plenty of museums too. We got the run down on how Panama hats are made. You could see the finishing touches in action. The other musuem was acollection of art, coins and ethnography (a fancy word for the study of cutlures.) You walked through displays of Euador's indigenous groups participating in daily life activites.

While we were at the museum we were invited to the celebration of the summer solstice. Yeap that was 2 weeks ago but they`d postponed the activity. It turned out to be more like a pilgrimage to 3 sacred spots. There was music and incense. The leaders were dressed in more traditional type clothing. It´s a little hard to explain because I don´t understand the significance of what we saw. The singing and the cermony were in Spanish. We wondered how much to participate in.

High above the city on a hill beside a cross the final ceremony was completed. Everyone was invited to raise their arms and turning in each of the cardinal direction, as well as up and down, the good spirits were invited from each of those areas and then washed over people. I know that sounds sort of strange. The leaders also blew out alcohol. There was some chanting.

So, you are probably asking "Why´d you do it?" We figured the best way to learn was to do it. You can watch a movie or hear about it but there is something unique about experiencing it with all your 5 senses. The smell of the incense, the squeeze of hugging a stranger, being a part of the crowd, seeing the leaders passing on their traditions and hearing the ryhthmic pounding of a drum. What a great way to know what people do and how they do it.

Well I´d say that certainly counts as a cultural experience!

Hats, Flowers and a Pilgrimage