Ecuador - Faces of the People

When traveling to different countries in the world, it is always interesting to people watch. To me, this is a great way to get a "feel" for the country and what sort of lives they live. Ecuador was a fine example of this. Quito is a large city - over 2,000,000 residents - that shows wealth and poverty in the faces of its citizens, with poverty being dominant. In a general way, this may not differ much from the US and Western Europe, but in degree, there may be large differences. Many of the homes people live in seem to be quite small and still under construction. This may be due to what I understand is a law that spares owners from real estate taxes while their home is still under construction. Once you leave the city, there is very little sign of wealth, with most people living in quite small homes and almost everyone with a small garden space, or a relatively small farm with land cleared for grazing.

Differences in the dress of distinct native cultures also are evident. Spanish culture seems to be much more prevalent in the cities than in the countryside. Notice the variations in dress and head wear on some of the accompanying images. One wonders if these distinctions in culture will survive many more generations. In spite of the apparent poverty in rural areas, the people were generally well dressed and cleanly clothed.

Notice the light colored eyes on this elderly lady.Rubber boots are the norm for rural residents, especially farmers.
And transportation by horse or mule is the standard. Several times, we encountered individuals carrying large 10-gallon milk containers on their backs.As in all countries, the children are beautiful!
The head wear on this lady was different from others we had seen. She was tending livestock at Yanacocha, elevation about 12,000 feet.
The back of small pickup trucks were often filled with passengers headed to "town" for the day.
At the famous marketplace town of Otavalo, there were lots of "bargains" available. Our visit there was on a rainy afternoon, so there were few people shopping. But the different cultures and financial status of the booth owners and shoppers there was fairly obvious.

A few dollars a day was probably a good income for some of the locals.
Our driver -Nestor Alban - people watches while he waits for us to complete some shopping at Otavalo Market.All the people we met and associated in Ecuador were friendly. It was a great introduction to a country and multiple cultures I was not familiar with!