Traditional Saraguro

On the 10th of January we headed north to the town of Saraguro, a small town of only 6,000 mainly Kichwa inhabitants. Saraguro is known for its resistance to Spanish conquest, being the only group to have done so in the area. On the tourist trail, Saraguro is known for its ‘traditional’ market.

Women and men of Saraguro dress up in their traditional clothing (which the men weave, as it is considered a difficult task and they take it on) which consists of men wearing black hats, knee-length pants, and black ponchos, and women wearing long black skirts and black shawls with loads of colorful beaded necklaces and bracelets. Typically, as in other communities, women wear their black hair in braids – and surprisingly, men still wear their black hair in one long neat braid down their back as well.

There is a traditional Saraguro-style hat that men and women sometimes wear, which is a wide-brimmed hat made of sheep’s wool with the underside of a cow pattern of black spots on a wide base. These hats are very expensive (up to $60 USD), time-consuming (2 days per hat) to make, and resource ‘hungry’ (one lamb’s full woolen coat is required) and I reckon that’s why I didn’t see too many of them at the market – in fact, I only saw one women wearing one and didn’t get a photo of her. Below I have a photo I took at a dance show in Quito, where they included a performance of dancers wearing the traditional Saraguro hats.  

On Sunday morning (the 11th) I headed out early to explore the market. It seemed like it took a while for things to get ‘started,’ and though I saw some pigs hanging on hooks and indigenous people buying supplies for their farms while wearing traditional clothing – it wasn’t either as large nor as interesting as I had hoped. In fact, many of the market stalls in the various buildings were empty. No idea why, but it is a small town and just after the Three King’s Festival, so that might have had an effect.  

We did manage to find some nice breakfast though of grilled cheese sandwiches, sugar-covered empanadas, and delicious raspberry juice. With the sandwiches and empanadas at $0.50 each, our breakfast for 2 people came to a total of $2.00 USD. Fantastic. Combined with per night stay at Hostal San Pedro for $10.00 USD for a large double room with our own bathroom and WIFI, it was making for a pretty cheap stay.

Since the Sunday market didn’t seem like much yet, we decided to head out of the town for a hike to a waterfall called Banos del Inca. We made our way up a path in between a couple of people’s houses until we reached the official wooden pathway built to climb up to the waterfall and a nearby cave. There were a bunch of little cute birds flying around we got some photos of, and weird bugs as well. Soon after we hiked back down and returned to Saraguro. I tried on a few necklaces at some of the market shops, which had seemed to have picked up a little, but couldn’t decide which one I wanted as at $40 USD I thought they were a bit expensive. But Colin surprised me with a couple of them later anyways!   

Colin and I realized a bit too late that the town of Saraguro didn’t have any ATMs. We ran around trying loads of places to get out money (and exchange it from credit card charges in some cases at a few stores) but  realized there was no way to get more money from the town. Luckily we were able to jump on a bus at the last minute heading to Cuenca, where we knew there would be more cash points.  

Francesca