Mindalae

So while I wondered how the trip to Machu Picchu had been the day before, I decided to start off my new adventure with yoga. I wasn't yet acclimated to the altitude, and found that long deep breathing at 9200 feet was really hard. Then, I went on to a lovely leisurely breakfast, which wasn't exactly like the ship, but reminiscent. Then, out!

One of the museums I really enjoyed last time on my cultural program was Mindalae, an ethnohistoric museum about Ecuador's indigenous communities, and I'd wanted to go back. I spent a couple of hours this morning, exploring. 

 I like the serpent/bird M symbol. 

 Two figurines. I don't seem to have my notes on these.....

 These are fajas, a type of belt. They are usually hand-woven on small looms. Love them! My first trip included Otavalo, and Veronica made sure that I got one while there.

 There are a bunch of these signs, one for each ethnic group. I took images of them all for our resource/activity centers, since we're always looking for good information on South American communities that is kid-friendly. When I stayed in the Amazon last time, it was in a Kichwa community.

 An example of some beautiful ladies' dresses from the highlands.

 An example of one of the bigger and more complicated looms.

 I really enjoyed this section on the flora, in this case, trees. We could do something like this....

 Two different types of crowns. Both are from the Oriente, the Amazon. Both use tropical bird feathers. The upper also uses wings of the scarab beetle (that's the sparkly green) and the lower uses spines, probably from something like a porcupine.

 A woven skirt with shells. I can hear the lovely sound they'd made as the owner walked or danced....

 An instrument! Yes, that's an armadillo shell. The sign had another name, but I'm used to calling this a charango. It's similar to a guitar.

Isn't this a great meeting room? I wish ours had great art like this one.

There was plenty more, including a huge exhibition on the devastation in the Amazon region from the oil drilling, and information about the Shuar baskets that we now have at the museum in the kids' space, but I was forced to handwrite those labels out since my camera battery died. Lesson with the new little camera -- when the camera battery sign comes on, there really isn't much time left. Oh well.

On my way out I grabbed a cappuccino to go from the coffee place and stopped at the little park with the photo murals and interesting gardens. Suddenly, I didn't feel well. I normally have a stomach of iron so I knew that something wasn't good. I took off for the hotel.... Definitely one of those times when you regret that you don't throw toilet paper into the toilets there. So plans changed to a quiet afternoon, which actually gave me a chance to catch up on a few things. It seemed weird to be the coffee, but I think it had to be. After a while, I went out to get some water and bread. I had dinner on my own -- one of my favorites, a soup called locro, which is a creamy potato soup usually served with cheese and avocado -- and an early quiet evening. Sometimes these days happen.