Yesterday we went to the Cañar animal market, and I created the first part of the report of that trip, talking about the various animals for sale.  Today I want to show some of the people that were there at the market.

Top left above is Alberto, Evelyn’s art instructor and our driver for the day.  Middle-left is Maite, his wife, and one of my cooking instructors.  The others are people attending the market, either to sell their animals, or to purchase them.

Babysitters are rare in Ecuador, as are strollers.  When mothers go about their business, they bring their children with them.  If they are young enough, they are typically tied in a cloth and strapped to the mother’s back.  Though you will occasionally see fathers with older children in tow, it is almost always the mother that carries the infants until they are old enough to walk on their own.

Along the periphery of the main animal market were vendors selling dry goods and food.  Some put a meager assortment of goods on a small tarp.  Others just draped their ropes out in a colorful array, so that those who bought a new animal could properly lead their purchase away.  One woman (lower left) just piled hundreds of shoes on the back of her car, while one enterprising man (upper right) emptied a large van onto tables and had a loudspeaker blasting his sales pitch for all to hear.  The vendor bottom-center above was selling wooden plows.  They don’t look like they would last very long in plowing fields, but he had plenty of people asking about them, and I saw at least two sales.

As we were driving out of town, we came across a long stretch with interesting murals.  I have posted a couple of blogs about the murals in Cuenca, so thought I would show that they exist in other towns of Ecuador too.