The remaining few days we spent in Ecuador were somewhat uneventful. We headed down to a town call Cuenca- a typical South American City. We were both unimpressed with where we were staying, but we were in a pretty central location so made the best of it. We spent some time hiking in a national park, took a city bus tour and even took a night to cook and relax in our hostel. When we have travelled in the past we have often cooked in our hostel, but I think my germ-a-phobia mind has gotten the best of me and it is harder for me to get excited about cooking in a kitchen with 12 other people who FORSURE are not washing or sterilizing the dishes to my standards.
We flew from Cuenca to Quito for an eventual flight to Lima. When we arrived at the airport in Quito we realized that neither of us had ANY clue which airline we were flying to Lima. We tried the one that we thought we were flying- they had no record of us. I, of course, could not find my e-mail confirmation and Angela knew her airline should be connected to United Airlines. Long story short after rushing around the airport we realized we were somehow on two different flights to Lima and they told Angela she would be flying through Panama! After some convincing- and searching- she did not end up flying through Panama, but we did fly separately to Lima.
Lima is an AMAZING city! I absolutely loved it. It helped that we met up with some of our artisan representatives early the next morning and shared a delicious cheviche lunch and they showed us around the city a bit. Apparently we were also experiencing one of Lima's few sunshine-filled days....so that was also nice!
Later that afternoon we headed out to meet with a potential artisan group of knitters. I immediately fell in love with the women working in this cooperative. I wish I could paint a picture of the circle of women knitting, creating and chatting together. Angela and I both got tears in our eyes several times as we spoke with the women about their stories and how having access to a global market had changed their lives. These women had created a community and a place to go each day to share stories and solve problems. Meeting our artisans has reinforced for me the impact we are making with Threads. I have LOVED this part of the trip!
Peru has been comprised of more bus travel that we originally expected. Clearly Peru is proficient in bus trips- as the seats lay almost flat and they sometimes serve meals, etc. Please don't picture anything too fancy- people still snore...and the drivers still drive like taxi drivers making it nearly impossible to completely settle in and get comfortable. You are constantly bracing yourself for the next big curve. I have also been lucky enough to experience some altitude sickness in the Andes- which causes my eyes to become unfocused and some generalized nausea. (awesome!)
Side note: when we attempted to purchase some nausea medicine from a pharmacy- I was standing behind Angela watching her"mime" puking into her hands until she got the point across of what we needed. Oh Spanish....still getting the best of us.
On one particular overnight bus ride I woke up in pitch black to the bus completely stopped and as I was trying to focus my eyes out the window Angela told me to 'not look down.' Later (after a lot of deep breathing) Angela confirmed my worst nightmare....we were on a single lane, winding dirt road with cliffs on one side-dropping thousands of feet- and the two bus drivers were outside with flashlights trying to figure out how we were going to get around a specific corner. I think I sang a few Sunday School songs repeatedly in my head- sure we would be plunging to our death in any second until I eventually fell asleep.
We made one of our longer bus trips to Ayacucho which is located way up in the Andes to meet with another artisan group. These amazing women make the belts sold by Threads and were extremely isolated compared to what either of us expected. Besides making the trip to Ayacucho- we also drove 2 hours on dirt roads to then hike up to their house. They were adorably excited to have us visit- even making us chicken soup to celebrate. They rarely eat meat and eating meat is evidence of a celebration. My near-vegetarian mindset struggled a bit, but ate almost every last bite...minus picking meat directly off the bone. Yikes!
We eventually make it to Cusco to meet up with our dear friends, Bethany, who would be traveling with us for the rest of the trip! More on Cusco and Machu Picchu later!
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