Well, bet you thought we had fallen off the map down here. We have just been running and staying busy with all sorts of outings of which I will now try to bring you up to date on. I'm getting to do the first half and my sweet Jean will finish up with hers. Wow, where to start!
As mentioned previously we went on a mountain trek outside of Cuenca to a remote area that was once the home area of the indigenous "Canari" tribe. They were a large tribe and resided over much of the Southern Andes Highlands. Encampments were usually along one of the many rivers. Predominately cave dwellers, their homes were in cliffs and ledges slightly above the rivers. Sometimes there were networks of caves. Our trip was to only one such cave area. Before we went on our trek we were taken to a local small museum that was put together by villagers from this area to remember their ancestors. There was a local woman who gave us a tour of the little museum. It was quit fascinating.
She spoke only in Spanish and we had several people to help us with most of the translation.
They had many historical artifacts from this area know as "Chobshi" or "Morning Star". Many were dated back to 500 BC or before.
Of course a lot of the things were more current such as my Jean(circa: 1944).
Many things were donated by local families in the area.
You can see the beginnings of some small hats
being woven from The Torquilla palm fronds.
This is the area that still weaves the famous "panama hats" for the stores in Cuenca.
Indigenous woman starting a straw hat beginning with the crown shape.
These are some arrowheads found in the caves.
More tools and axes.
Skull and teeth dating back to 250 BC.
Many different platforms for food prep, grinding, garment washing and other chores. They only used certain vessels for certain things never cross contaminating the vessels use.
We then began the long trek across a trail that was hardly big enough for a goat in some places.
Some places there was a sheer drop off to valley and river below that in some places was about 1,000ft.
If you zoom on the bottom left of this photo you will see something that looks like colored paper on the green grass just above the large boulder. It is actually some young people laying out and relaxing by the river.
See what I mean about narrow. To my left is a wall I could touch with my hand and to my right is a sheer drop-off to the river. We had one couple turn around and go back down to the trail head.
But where you could stop and look out, the vistas were beautiful to see.
Up here this is how a family of 4 gets around.
We finally made it to the bottom 2 1/2 hours later and of course it was Saturday and what do all the people do on Saturday...Yes, they do the laundry.
The men as well as the women all pitch in to get it done. They sometimes spread it all out on the rocks to dry, or pack it up and take it home to dry on a line or their fences.
We did get to see one cave but because of past looting they had it pretty much roped off to visitors. Many artifacts were found in this cave alone.
This trek was most demanding and we may not have done it if we had known the difficulty involved. We are glad we did and came home stronger for it. We didn't go anywhere for 2 days afterwards.
So, onward with our stories around Cuenca. At home Jean and I go to a wonderful dental clinic in Mineola, Tx. Since we were coming down here we missed our last dental check up at home. Through our Texas friends here we learned of a great dentist named Dr, Gracie. Trained in the USA, Dr. Gracie spoke flawless English and we made appointments for check ups and cleaning. She has a great office less than a 10 minute walk for us. When Jean and I go at home it cost us $ 265.00 for both of us. At Dr. Gracie's it was $ 70.00 for both of us and we both felt is was very thorough. She is very gentle and is talking all the time to make sure you are O:K. She is no bigger than a minute and makes Jean look tall.
She can perform any service you might need from her well equipped and modern office. Having been in the dental business for a few years we had a great discussion about evolving equipment and I checked out her office pretty well. We are very pleased. Believe it or not we were told afterward that she may be a little "high" on her services. Not for us though.
O:K, we have more to share but that will have to wait til later. We are headed to Wednesday Bible Study at our church for now. Jean has a great post coming up about more of or fun and friends we are meeting from all over the place.
Until then we miss and love each one of you and think of you often.
May GOD bless you all.
John
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