This was yesterday’s post, but it took me till this morning to assemble the pictures.

Well this was certainly a day of experiences and surprises!

First, Susan took me to a wonderful artisan market — remember, I’m the one who wasn’t going to do much shopping in Ecuador! But I read somewhere that the Ecuadoran handicrafts are excellent, and I can certainly attest to that. Because of Susan’s friendships with many of the local merchants, I got special treatment — and in some cases special prices. One elderly gentleman, ‘Papa’ to his friends, took us into the back of his small shop, and it turned out to be a huge area that was a veritable Alladin’s Cave of beautiful, brightly coloured woven hangings, shawls, jewellery, clothing and some things — like this mask he was wearing in the photo — that were really beyond description!

Did you know that Panama Hats are made in Ecuador? The story goes that a bunch of them were sent as a gift to Panama in connection with the building of the Panama Canal, and when President Roosevelt went there they gave him one. When he wore it back home people asked him where he got it and he said Panama, so it became known as the Panama Hat — much to the chagrin of Ecuadorans of the time, although I’m sure they’re over it by now as they seem to take life in their stride. Today Susan and I went to this factory/museum of hats, and they were beautiful.

There are many ways to make Christmas tree decorations. This is how you make them when you run a hat factory! These bows are made from the woven pieces left over from the hats. Cool, eh?

The next thing was one of the surprises. While Susan and I were out and about, Michael called Susan to tell her there was “something going on with horses”, so we went to investigate. Turned out to be a group of people from the National Police (Ecuador’s version of the RCMP I think). As you can see from the picture, the horses were beautiful, and so were the riders! Handsome men and beautiful women, immaculately turned out in uniform, and very happy to pose for photos.

Apparently they were part of an important religious ceremony taking place outside one of the churches, and the place was so packed we had to take a different route home. They take their religion very seriously here (but not too solemnly) and Christmas is a time of ceremonies and fun.

After dinner I was treated to a wonderful Christmas concert in the ‘old’ cathedral. It was deconsecrated when they built the ‘new’ cathedral  — about 200 years ago — and they now use it for concerts. It has fabulous accoustics. The concert was excellent — and free!

So we thought we were done for the night, but when we came out into the garden square beside the cathedral we could hear music. It was a jazz band playing in the street! So we listened there for a bit, and when we moved on we heard more music from the other side of the square, and that turned out to be a group of army musicians playing in the bandstand!

As I said, a day of experiences and surprises! Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and when apparently there is the mother of all parades here, so I’m looking forward to that. I’ll keep you posted!