Among the last days of my stay in the highlands, I’m siting at a long wooden table, in a hostel nestled in the tightly-packed hamlet-like town. I eat my soup, the twenty other twenty-somethings also enjoying the meal. The Dutch language rolls off their tongues (I don’t speak Dutch) as smooth as their laughter. A pause enters, I politely introduce myself in English, and continue to eat my soup, allowing their conversation to carry on. The hostel was started, I learn, by an Ecuadorian-Belgium. A non-profit, they benefit the local school(s). My stay in pleasant, especially: market day. Guinea pigs and tape recorders, sandals and vegetables, sweaters and pigs (plenty), plentiful weekly exchanges (actors on a stage, a la Market Day in Provance). Negotiating prices is easy, and enjoyable!
last days in Ecuadorian Andes
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