Valle de El Chota

2 days spent in Valle de El Chota--4 hours north of Quito, known for it´s hot, dry climate, and it´s huge population of Afro Ecuadorians.

Our base, of sorts, was a center designed to promote cultural learning for tourists in the town of Mascarilas. We ate all of our meals in a dining room that always smelled like pizza, but we never actually ate pizza, which was devastating for me.

As one would imagine, the area is surrounded by the most beautiful mountains, and green, green, green. With the dollarization proccess, profitable agriculture nearly became out of the question, so many groups formed (usually comprised of women) to make and sell jewelery using seeds, clay, and glass, greeting cards made out of paper maché, as well as beautiful masks made out of clay.

We visited a pre-school, where we sang songs for each other and taught games like duck, duck, grey duck. We got our hands dirty making tiny ceramic pots and masks, and stayed with host families for the night.

The sun was hot, the Pilsener was served room-temperature, and the times were fun.