We took a short tour today because most of our day was to be devoted to the football playoffs. Our tour guide, Edwin, had a very good command of English and gave us a lot of information about the area. This part of Ecuador produces most of the world’s tuna. He proudly pointed out the “Charlie Star Kist” factory when we passed by. Luckily we didn’t tour the factory; if we had I may have eaten another tuna salad sandwich .
Our first stop was the button factory. They produce buttons from a nut with a center that has the look and durability of ivory. It was Sunday morning but the factory was fully staffed. The workers have all five fingers bandaged as they slice the nuts in preparation for them to be made into buttons. It looked like monotonous work to me but they seemed to be happy enough. Many of them were doing this primitive work while listening to their ipods. The part of the nut that isn’t used for buttons is then made into small figurines and jewelry to sell to the tourists. They didn’t waste anything.
We learned that Panama hats are not made in Panama; they’re made in Ecuador. So, of course, we had to go to a workshop to see how they are made. It’s amazing to see the work that people in these countries are willing to do. They see it as a privilege to be a hat maker, a trade that’s handed down with pride from generation to generation. The hats are mostly made by the women, who are bent over a pedestal to achieve just the right angle to do the weaving. After 8 hours their backs must ache and at the end of this “career” I’m sure their backs are bent and arthritic.
Today we’re on the second of two sea days. Sharon and Pete were scheduled for a 3 day trip to Machu Picchu tomorrow but it looks like the trip is canceled due to some kind of natural disaster that has hit the area. We’re trying to get the details but so far we’ve only heard rumors.
We’ve been playing trivia every day and our teamed, named OH MICH, has gotten pretty good. Yesterday we had the highest score after we answered the tie breaker question correctly. We’re so proud!
Ed and I continue our dancing lessons. We’ve now learned the waltz, rumba and swing. But here’s what happens: as soon as we learned the rumba, we forgot the waltz, and now that we’ve learned the swing, we’ve forgotten the waltz and the rumba. It makes me crazy! Hopefully they’ll schedule some Dancing For Dummies remedial classes.
We’re going to spend the next 2 days in Lima. We’ve been there twice before and don’t have any plans while we’re there. After that it’s all new territory for us so hopefully this blog will get more interesting after that. Adios!
Our first stop was the button factory. They produce buttons from a nut with a center that has the look and durability of ivory. It was Sunday morning but the factory was fully staffed. The workers have all five fingers bandaged as they slice the nuts in preparation for them to be made into buttons. It looked like monotonous work to me but they seemed to be happy enough. Many of them were doing this primitive work while listening to their ipods. The part of the nut that isn’t used for buttons is then made into small figurines and jewelry to sell to the tourists. They didn’t waste anything.
We learned that Panama hats are not made in Panama; they’re made in Ecuador. So, of course, we had to go to a workshop to see how they are made. It’s amazing to see the work that people in these countries are willing to do. They see it as a privilege to be a hat maker, a trade that’s handed down with pride from generation to generation. The hats are mostly made by the women, who are bent over a pedestal to achieve just the right angle to do the weaving. After 8 hours their backs must ache and at the end of this “career” I’m sure their backs are bent and arthritic.
Today we’re on the second of two sea days. Sharon and Pete were scheduled for a 3 day trip to Machu Picchu tomorrow but it looks like the trip is canceled due to some kind of natural disaster that has hit the area. We’re trying to get the details but so far we’ve only heard rumors.
We’ve been playing trivia every day and our teamed, named OH MICH, has gotten pretty good. Yesterday we had the highest score after we answered the tie breaker question correctly. We’re so proud!
Ed and I continue our dancing lessons. We’ve now learned the waltz, rumba and swing. But here’s what happens: as soon as we learned the rumba, we forgot the waltz, and now that we’ve learned the swing, we’ve forgotten the waltz and the rumba. It makes me crazy! Hopefully they’ll schedule some Dancing For Dummies remedial classes.
We’re going to spend the next 2 days in Lima. We’ve been there twice before and don’t have any plans while we’re there. After that it’s all new territory for us so hopefully this blog will get more interesting after that. Adios!
Well Simba, Smokey and Gracie would love Ecuador (tuna....).
ReplyDeleteLet us know about what you discover about the Machu Picchu natural disaster....
All I can say about your dancing is:
"Keep on dancin, dancin, dancin.......... You're a dancing machine!"
your blog entries are already interesting Suzanne. :)
ReplyDeleteSaw in the news today that Machu Picchu is experiencing serious mud slides which blocked the train. They were evacuating tourist via a helicopter.
ReplyDelete