Tuesday, February 7, 2017, La Magdalena to Cuenca

We started in the morning at about 9:00 a.m. by taking a tour of the vegetable garden, led by Selso and interpreted by Alejandra. Selso and Sylvia grow a variety of familiar and unfamiliar fruits, herbs and vegetables. There were two types of leeks, white carrots (parsnips?), thyme, verbena, lemon balm, jicama, beans, limes, cabbages, beets, lettuce, potatoes and much more. Selso said that two disabled men from the community help him with the gardening. Alejandra remarked that there is a government requirement that most businesses employ disabled people. Selso and his neighbors are not allowed to irrigate their gardens, and must rely on natural rainfall. This being the beginning of the rainy season, the garden seemed quite healthy.

I got a call from work just as we were about to walk up the road to see the view of the mountains and the provincial capital of Ibarra in the distance. The others walked on ahead, while I finished my phone call and a follow-up email. Abby and I then rode in the vehicle with Jorge up to a point in the road where construction workers were laying cobblestones on the dirt road. The stones were irregular shapes of andesite about twice the size of a man’s fist or smaller. The views of the urban valley in one direction and the rural valley in another were spectacular. We admired crops of beans grown on impossibly steep hillsides. Most cultivation was done by hand in this area.

Part of the plan of our homestay was to help the family with some of their chores, to learn more about their lifestyle. Selso produced a large bag of dried beans that we proceeded to shell into a pan. Everyone pitched in, including Jorge and Alejandra. After the beans were shelled we moved into the kitchen and made fresh cheese from local milk. It seemed that every family had a couple of milk cows. A packet of powder was added to the milk to cause it to curdle. Then the whey was scooped out of the pan with a dipper and the curds were packed into a form and squeezed dry. By lunch time we had fresh cheese to eat.

We began the two-hour ride to the Quito airport at 2:25 p.m. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time for our 6:50 p.m. flight to Cuenca, a flight that would last less than an hour. Jaime met us at the airport with a spacious van, and took us to Mansion Alcanzar, an elegant hotel in the heart of old Cuenca. We had a light supper in the hotel bar and talked about what a great time we had had in La Magdalena.