A few cultural notes

So I was trying to think on the bus ride in to Cayambe this morning what would be the best way to incorporate some of the smaller things that make this place different and fun, but there seemed to be enough to stand on their own. Here goes -

For some reason whining never becomes unpopular here. All the women use this strange whiney voice whenever they have the groups attention and something is slightly wrong or they need a favor. Its kinda cute, but also pretty ridiculous. Last night I sat at my host grandmothers house and a bunch of the sisters just sat around whining for something like 4 hours. Remarkable!

Drinking is frequent but in small doeses during the fiesta season. Its hard to explain. Everyone here has a pretty low tolerance, but its custom to drink loads of this stuff called chicha (see entry on chicha) - but only sips at a time. And in the middle of these fiestas, theres tons of folks walking around with bottles of liquor that they pour in those little cups they have at the dentists office for rinsing out your mouth. No where near full shots. The funny thing is that its the job of the person giving out the drinks to be unbelievably pushy - and ive seen pushy. Its customary to have a bit of a discussion back and forth about why you should or shouldnt drink and then at the end you can at least make the person giving the drink suffer a bit by insisting that they drink first. What fun.

Everythings smaller. Okay, Im big. Ill admit that. But its become difficult a couple of times. Ive hit my head on the cielings of stores, buses, bathrooms, guinea pig stables and random overhanging poles. Legroom is a problem with legroom too. There was one bathroom in Quito that I couldnt figure out how anyone could have sat the correct way on these things. Honestly, there couldnt have been more than 4 inches between the edge of the seat and the wall. So, when in ecuador...

Everyone loves the 80s. I didnt bring an iPod because i thought it might be a bit more immersive to listen to their music. But mostly theyve just managed to pick the worst of our dark past and broadcast it 24/7 across the nation.

Every Friday theres a huge line outside every bank of all the workers from the flower plantations. Its an interesting cross section of all the folks that work in these horrible places. Will write more about these things.