Catacocha and Colada Morada

This blog is a little delayed because our internet was out for a week.

Last Sunday, October 25th, we had another great road trip outing with our host family. We traveled west to a small town called Catacocha. The trip included passing over an approx. 12,000 foot mountain pass—beautiful views. It was about a 1 ½ hour trip that probably should have taken 2 – 3 hours. Drivers here think little of passing right before blind corners and don’t hesitate to cross double yellow lines. In addition, we have yet to see a single speed limit sign….anywhere. Needless to say, road travel by passenger car is not for the faint at heart. Sometimes you just have to look away and hope that you’ll be to your destination soon.

Upon our arrival in Catacocha we were treated to a great “canopy tour” overlooking the city. Canopy is a loosely used term because we really weren’t in a canopy, although we did come within feet of some trees. It happens to be the dry season in this area right now, so things were looking a little crispy. Still very beautiful but we couldn’t help but wonder what it would look like in December or January during the wet season. The zip lines were a good thrill, and it was really cool to look out over the horizon. This area is also known as the Incan balcony and we could see mountain tops stretching out for miles in the distance with a huge green valley below us. We had a great lunch in town (a great picture of Ben indulging in Ecuadorian meat-cecina), a speedy and scary ride home and still had time to rest and catch up on some work for the week.

On Thursday we traveled downtown to get some bus tickets and found ourselves in the midst of a student protest/rally complete with closed streets and police in riot gear. We’re not sure exactly what they were protesting but we came across a friend that showed us his banner which said something about “University autonomy”.

The odd thing is that it coincided with an Ecuadorian tradition of women selling a hot beverage called Colada Morada for the coming All Saints Day and All Souls Day. They lined the streets of the main square with huge vats of purple fruit punchy stuff on hot plates and tables full of bread called “Puerco” ( It’s supposed to look like a pig). It all has something to do with Catholicism and pork but we’re not quite sure what. Anyhow, it made for an entertaining walk and

we really wished we had the camera. We did buy some bread, so you could see the “Puerco”.