Clothing

Walking down the street also is great for people watching!  Some look as if they just came from the jungle, with big rubber boots all muddy, old baggy jeans for the guys and skirts for the ladies, carrying their babies in bright slings, barely holding them on, just tension and a big diaper!  Then after them come people dressed no different than you’d see anywhere in the States, jeans, t-shirt, shorts, etc.  Next to them could be a woman dressed up so much that she looks like she’s going to a fancy restaurant, but is really just getting home from work, wearing her uniform.  And then after that could be someone dressed in their traditional clothing, that hasn’t, as far as I know, changed for centuries.

The first time I saw an indigenous lady in traditional clothing I had the hardest time not staring.  Then the first time I saw an indigenous lady from a different village I again struggled with not staring.  The clothes seem so foreign and exotic at first.  But I soon realized that it's a normal every day thing for many to continue wearing traditional clothing all the time and not just at reenactments, like in the States.  Now, I've gotten used to it and can even tell, to some extent, what region the lady comes from, based on her clothes.  Most of the ladies in town, in traditional clothes, come from the areas around Riobamba and Ambato, in the highlands and wear long black or navy blue wraparound skirts with embroidery on the bottom.  The most amazing part of it though, is the belt they use.  It's a really long strip of brightly embroidered fabric that they just wrap around them a bunch of times, tuck in the end, and that holds up the skirt!  I was slightly shocked the first time I saw a younger lady, around my age, dressed in the traditional skirt with a t-shirt on top and zip-up sweatshirt!  The combination traditional and contemporary seemed odd at first, to me, but appears to be the way they've allowed themselves to "modernize" while still carrying on tradition.  But after seeing them, I was still taken aback when I saw a lady from Otavalo in town.  They're very easy to spot, since they always wear white, lacy embroidered shirts, with a double skirt underneath, at least that's what it appears. :)  It looks like it's a tan skirt underneath with a black one on top.

 I was beginning to think that all of the indigenous people from around Macas had completely assimilated, since the only ones I saw dressing traditionally were from the highlands, until I was getting ready to leave Macas the 2nd year I came down and was at the airport waiting for the plane to land.  The plane was hours late and I looked out the window at the airport, and saw a crowd gathering to meet the incoming plane.  That wasn’t the odd thing, though, but how some were dressed.  It was all men in suits, but over half had yellow and red feathered crowns on their head and were wearing long loops of what looked like beads, but I knew were seeds.  They were looped across their chest, crisscrossing their bodies.   Others just had the seeds.  My friend, who was with me, said that the feathered crowns were for the shamans or heads of the clan.  They were meeting some dignitary, which is why the plane was so late.