WHY I LOVE THE PEOPLE IN CUENCA

Jim and I headed downtown on a trip to buy coffee, and perhaps, find him a new Panama hat.  He purposely brought his "wounded" optima to Ecuador knowing he would buy a new one.  There are several new Homero Ortega hat shops along Hermano Miguel but alas they had mostly fedora style Panamas.  We decided that hat shopping will be reserved for another day when we will venture to the big Ortega hat store.

We continued our walk toward Parque Calderón and came across a familiar name.  I have been shopping at Galapagos Artesanias since 2007 when we first  came to Cuenca.  The store I always shopped at was in a different location near Parque Calderón.   Of course we had to go in, up 2 flights of very creaky stairs.  Once we got to the top and turned the corner into the shop we were greeted by the most warm and friendly shop keeper ever.  Laura immediately took us under her wing and explained about the earrings I was looking at - some were made from cow horn, some from cow bones and some were hand painted by artisans from a region near Quito called Quilotoa.  We had not heard about this area.

Hand painted cat earrings from Quilotoa

 She had a wall full of masks that these artisans had carved out of wood and painted in their style.   We particularly like this hummingbird mask.

Colibri

Laura explained that the masks are created for the festival of Corpus Christi.   She also showed us little paintings on sheepskin done by these same artisans.  All of this enthusiastic delivery of information was done  in simple Spanish for our benefit, along with a few words in English.  I kept browsing and in the meantime Laura had noticed Jim's broken hat.  She offered to repair it for him so while continuing to talk with us she got out needle and thread and sewed up the ripped brim and then applied glue to the repair.  While doing this her sister came to visit and brought cut up pinneapple so of course Laura offered us some.

Laura fixing Jim's hat

Then we got interested in all her tagua nut  (vegetable ivory) figurines so Laura proceeded to educate us in how the nuts grow and the process which makes them into a state ready to be carved.  We did not know that, like coconuts, tagua nuts have a green stage where they can be drunk as milk, then a stage where the bark gets yellow and the nut is like jelly.  After 4 months or so they harden and are ready to carve.  Here are are the two we couldn't resist.

When we explained that the elephant was for our sister-in-law Laura wanted to know her name.  When we said her name was  Luisa (Louise) she told us all about a naming convention unique to Ecuador.  An endearment for Luisa is Luchita, and for Luis it is Luchito.

Now Laura was finished putting the glue on Jim's hat and I was paying for our purchases.  Laura was making out the invoice and said the date out loud.  I told her that it was my mother's  birthday and had she still been alive she would have been 103.  Laura wanted to know my mother's name, which she wrote down, and stated that she would add her to her prayers.

We spent roughly an hour at Laura's shop and had a thoroughly delightful time with this charming and engaging woman.  I felt like we had a new best friend.  This is the kind of  connection with people that is not that uncommon in Cuenca and is so rare at home.

Laura Marcatoma and Jim 

I know we will return to this shop again and again,  yes, for the arts and crafts but mostly for the great company of Laura, our new Cuencana friend.

Next, we stumble upon a preeminent Ecuadorian artist.

Audrey