La Casa de Hortencia

My hostwhile in La Chimba, Hortencia, is an amazing woman. She is raising two children on her own and owns her own home and has been building another unit above hers. The upper unit just needs the finishing touches, but she says that will take a while. Her husband abandoned her and her daughter while she was pregnant with Luis seven years ago. He went to Spain and had not been heard of since. Vinicio, the tourism chief, told me that nearly 50% of the youth in La Chimba have emmigrated to Spain in the last ten years. He says that the crops they used to grow we rendered useless because the US and Europe dumped subsidized wheat and other crops (corn, I think) on the market here at prices far below what the farmers in La Chimba needed to survive. That´s when they switched to cattle, but still that´s not enough to sustain a population.

This is the area where your beautiful roses come from as well. There are more than 3000 rose factories in this part of the Andes, most of which poison the workers with noxious chemicals and barely pay a living wage. But let´s not go there.

My last two days in La Chimba were spent with Hortensia and Luis and were great fun. One day we went to the cows and rode the milk truck into town afterwards with a bunch of other people, standing in the back of the truck with a gigantic, brilliant rainbow behind us. Exhilarating! Another morning we went to Luis´ school for the graduation ceremony of students at all grades, and later took a bus into Cayambe the biggest town around (about 45 minutes by bus) and bought a cake for Luis and his cousin who were graduating, had lunch, did some shopping, and then took a bus part of the way home and a truck the rest of the way. Most people here travel by bus and in the back of trucks. Pretty cheap way to get around, though riding on the back of trucks isn´t the safest way travel. My last night at the house, we had Hortensia´s sister and kids over and had a cake and dancing party. Photos and video to follow.