Heritage of guitar making in San Bartolomé is memorialized by sculptures on main square of town

Many rural towns scattered across Ecuador still adhere to the “guild system” inherited from Spain, where each community specializes in a particular craft. My travels had taken me to towns where giant round loaves of bread were stacked in every storefront window; to villages that produced incense, soaps, and oils from the fragrant wood of Palo Santo trees; and to still others that specialized in pottery and leather goods, but the hills around Cuenca may be home to the most interesting artisan traditions in the country and San Bartolomé is the gem in the collection.

Custom inlaid guitars, handmade by Jose Uyaguari in San Bartolome, Ecuador

In the foothills just above the town’s main plaza, we climbed out of the van at the home of master craftsman Jose Uyaguari. The tools of his trade were spread across a rough wooden table set up in his front patio: two long silver wood planes, chisels, awls, and a giant tub of glue. Using exotic woods such as Capuli and African Ebony, Uyaguari fashions some of the world’s finest guitars without using a single nail, then adorns them with intricate inlays painstakingly pieced together from tiny bits of multi-colored wood shavings. His customers are said to include famous artists such as Freddy Fender and Judy Collins, and though he wouldn’t confirm this, Uyaguari did acknowledge that musicians come from all over the world to buy his instruments, which are priced from $75 to $1,000. Perhaps most astonishing, Uyaguari cannot play a note!

Making silver filigree jewelry in Chordeleg, Ecuador

Next up was the town of Chordeleg, famous for its jewelry, where silversmith Jorge walked us through the art of crafting exquisite filigree earrings, rings, and necklaces. He fed a silver ingot into a rolling mill, allowing it to flatten and extrude with each repeated pass, until it took the shape of a rough wire. This was further rolled out by hand on an anvil until it became a delicate flexible strand. With awl and tweezers, Jorge deftly twisted the silver into a series intricate figure eights, which were dusted with silver powder and melded together with a soldering torch. Each piece is unique and is priced according to the difficulty of design and weight of the silver; I purchased a pair of silver dangle earrings for $15. Jorge’s affordable prices are undoubtedly due to low overhead (his shop is in his home and the silver is sourced from mines in the nearby hills that are still worked by independent miners), but later when we stopped for lunch in central Chordeleg I realized what a bargain I had gotten. Scores of jewelry stores lined the central plaza and not one offered a similar pair for less than $50.

Miniature ceramic folkloric figurines from Chordeleg, Ecuador

On the other side of Chordeleg, the Fernando family was busy making miniature ceramic folkloric figurines. Using special clay imported from the jungle, the body and limbs of a figure were rolled out and cut to the appropriate length, and a ball was hand-carved into a face. The painstaking process of making the face by hand limited production to 20 figurines per day, a number far less than the demand, prompting Mr. Fernando to develop a face mold that now allows the family to increase production to 100 per day. Still, the family cannot fill all the orders they receive. A full set of traditional musicians (8-10 figurines) costs $12 to $15.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kVSaAnHXNE

Can’t view the above video of the artisan villages in the mountains around Cuenca, Ecuador? Click here.

Our final stop of the afternoon was Gualaceo. Following a visit to the town’s extensive fruit and vegetable market, where we sampled unfamiliar fruits like Guaba, we were off to visit weavers who produce startlingly beautiful scarves and shawls from local wool. From raising the sheep to weaving the finished products, everything in this operation is done by hand. Wool is gathered, carded and spun, then formed into long strands that are knotted at intervals. These strands are dipped into brilliant dyes made from natural ingredients that color the wool wherever there are no knots. After drying, the knots are removed to reveal a striking two-tone pattern that is then used to weave the final product on old-fashioned wooden looms.

Can’t view the above slide show of artisan villages near Cuenca, Ecuador? Click here.

As Ecuador becomes more developed, fewer people are interested in learning these ancient arts. According to our guide, only two traditional sheep’s wool weavers remain in the entire country and, although Mr. Fernando’s children hope to become part of the business when they complete school, no one outside the family seems to want to learn how to make ceramic figurines. The day will likely come when all these items are mass produced in factories, but for the moment Ecuador is a veritable treasure trove of “guild towns” and unique handcrafted items.

You might also like:

Strangely, the only place I ever hear about fear of travel is in the U.S. Granted, many of the places I travel are developing countries, where the local populace is not affluent enough to travel outside their own country, but even in Europe, Australia, or New Zealand, this question never arises. U.S. citizens seem to be the only ones who believe that travel is dangerous. I actually feel safer overseas than I do in many U.S. cities. My answer is always, “There is nothing to fear.”

John and LaVonne Kunkel on the Ruth Glacier in Alaska

Recently I received an email from LaVonne and John Kunkel, friends from the days when I was a real estate broker on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Though I never particularly enjoyed selling real estate, I was blessed to work with some wonderful clients who, like John and Vonnie, became treasured friends. I was unaware that Vonnie had been following my blog until she wrote in response to my story about receiving an uncommon and unexpected welcome in the town of Alausi, Ecuador:

“I agree completely! We have encountered the same everywhere we travel. Just last week,  we were waiting for a bus in Puerto Rico.There was no one else in sight until a limping, ragged looking man approached the very-obviously-American touristos and asked, “Old Town?” When we nodded affirmatively, he pointed across the road at another bus stop and motioned for us to follow him. We thanked him and stopped at the other bus stop. He walked on further and turned again to motion frantically for us to follow, which we did. When we came to a third stop, he waved and walked on. The correct bus came soon after.

Late that evening on our return we got on one bus, but the driver later had us transfer to another bus going in the direction from which we had just come! It was filled with locals on their way home from a long day of hard work. When we got on, I turned and asked, “Does anyone speak English?” and I told them the address of our hotel. Everyone smiled. Periodically, I would turn and ask, “Now?” Several would shake their heads. There was a raggedy man sitting directly across from us laden with silver chains: from wrist to elbow on each arm and strung around his neck. During our 20 minute-or-so trip, he played continuously with them: I was fascinated with his intent. Suddenly, he reached toward me, pointed and mumbled, indicating that we should get off next. What a surprise that this man, who had not appeared to even be aware of us, was the one who helped us. As we departed, I turned and thanked everyone; they laughed joyously. While the experience falls short of the magnitude of yours, we felt like “guests of honor”; it was a great!

Of course, you know that I believe we generate the aura of our own faith, sharing it with those around us, and are rewarded in kind. We have witnessed it, and you have proven it as you travel the world with faith as your only companion. We admire your courage and tenacity. We are so proud of you and so blessed to have you in our lives.”

I wrote back, asking if I could share their story. Vonnie replied that they would be delighted and attached the above photo of John and her on Ruth Glacier in Alaska. In addition to their recent Puerto Rico trip they are planning a future trip to Ireland, where they will stay in castles and roam the countryside on their own, as well as another to England and Scotland. Independent travel allows us to immerse in cultures different from our own and in the process we inevitably realize that people around the world are more similar than they are different. I’m a firm believer that the better we get to know each another, the less likely we will want to kill one another. Travel may well be our best path to the elimination of fear and subsequent world peace. Thank you John and Vonnie, for sharing your inspirational story.

You might also like:

Fortunately, I had a plan for making Cuenca seem more like home. Shortly after arriving in Mexico in 2010 I received a comment on my blog from Nancy and Paul Dardarian, American expats who had moved to Mazatlan some years earlier and subsequently launched the popular expat travel blog Countdown to Mexico. We met for a leisurely lunch at an oceanfront palapa and I got the benefit of all their knowledge about Mazatlan. When Nancy and Paul wrote about our meeting, several of their followers became followers of my blog as well. Among them was Ken Smith, an American expat living in Lake Chapala, Mexico. Ken had been “lurking” around my bog for a while but when he learned I was Cuenca bound he contacted me and suggested I get in touch with a friend of his, Regina Potenza, yet another American expat who lived for more than 20 years in Lake Chapala but had moved to Cuenca a couple years earlier. It is indeed a small world.

Meeting up with expats for Sunday Football at the Inca Cafe

Regina and I exchanged emails and she suggested I stay at the Hotel Milan, which turned out to be a wonderful family-owned hotel in the middle of downtown, affordably priced at only $17 per night for a private room with private bath. But this was just the beginning. I’d barely arrived when Regina phoned with an invitation to meet up with other expats at the regular Tuesday evening get-together at DiBacco Italian Restaurant, which is half-owned by another American expat, John Buskey (excellent food, by the way).

Over the next week, Regina and others among the expat community welcomed me into their fold to such a degree that it felt like instant family. I joined them for Sunday football at the Inca Lounge, tagged along on a furniture shopping expedition, and attended their writer’s group reading one evening. They made sure I knew which attractions were worth the price of admission and which should be skipped; which areas of the city were safe to walk alone at night and which should be avoided; and what nearby artisan towns were worth a visit. Perhaps the best tip of all came from Regina herself, when she told me not to miss the free museum inside the Banco Central, which has an astonishing and thorough display about the various cultures of Ecuador, and the adjacent Pumapungo ruins.

Can’t view the above slide show about Cuenca, Ecuador? Click here.

I was having such a good time that I didn’t want to leave. My initial three days in Cuenca stretched to five and then to seven, but by the end of the week I really needed to get back on the road; I had wandered around Ecuador for nearly two months and was due back in the States to visit my family over the Christmas holiday, leaving barely a month to travel though Peru. But my new friends were having none of that. Barbie DiPalma and John Vitale made me an offer I just couldn’t refuse: they invited me enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings in their home with a few of the other expats I had already met. And if I stayed, Regina added, I could walk in the First Annual Cuenca Turkey Trot, a two-mile race along the Tomebamba River to benefit Fundacion El Arenal, an after-school program for at-risk kids who work long hours beside their parents at the largest produce and meat market in town.

Signup at the First Annual Cuenca Turkey Trot, Thanksgiving Day, 2011

Stretching before the Turkey Trot

Fundacion El Arenal, an after-school program for at-risk kids, is the beneficiary of the Turkey Trot proceeds

And we're off! After a two-mile walk/trot, we reward ourselves with pastries at a local cafe

Luckily, as a perpetual traveler I have no concrete schedule. Each time I added a few more days to my stay the owners of Hotel Milan smiled and nodded knowingly; it seems many visitors get “sticky feet” in Cuenca. What’s another two days, anyway? So, early Thanksgiving morning I put on my jogging duds, walked down to the starting point for the Turkey Trot, and paid my $3 entry fee. I hot-footed it to half-way point and “kissed the bridge” before reversing direction to our ending point, the Kookaburra Cafe, where we stuffed our faces with coffee and delish pastries. A couple hours later I was schmoozing with the expats and stuffing my face from the mouth-watering Thanksgiving spread laid out by John & Barbie (see Regina’s photo album for the day, which has a couple of largely unattractive photos of me, here).

I did finally depart the following morning. For many, Cuenca is the ideal place to retire overseas. Food is incredibly cheap and fresh organic fruit and vegetables are abundant; gas is only $1.50 per gallon; the city is quite safe and clean; there are sufficient cultural activities available; and the Ecuadorian government and people are welcoming to expats, thus it is fairly easy to gain permanent residency. But Cuenca is not quite the paradise I seek; at an elevation of 8,400 feet, the evening temperatures are just too chilly and I know the clouds that roll in every afternoon would eventually begin to depress me. I learned long ago that paradise on earth doesn’t exist, but Cuenca is close…very close.

Cuenca Vacations

You might also like: