A whole week has passed since Thanksgiving, and I hope you had a truly happy day. I know I did. I was invited to have Thanksgiving dinner with a tour group of people thinking about relocating to Ecuador. My friend Sarah Dettman brings tours through Cotacachi several times a year and this tour happened to include the Thanksgiving holiday. Since I am an alumnus of the tour (back in spring of 2012 called Ecuador Crash Course and now called Ecuador Expat Journeys) I got invited to go along with the group to Inka Tambo in the Peguche area. During the times of Incan leaders, runners used to take turns transporting various items from the coast to the highlands. Seafood was one of the desired goods, and could be delivered from the coast within a span of 10 hours with runners exchanging the goods at special stations known as tambos.
Upon arrival at Inka Tambo, I was surprised to recognize the place and the shaman who lives there along with his extended family and others. I flashed back to a photo of myself standing next to him on the path to Peguche Falls on a previous trip to Ecuador. A huge shelter was beautifully set with colorful woven runners and place settings. Inside, musicians played lovely music on flute and harp. The fellow you see sitting at the loom gave us a demonstration on how he works. The sun was high and as you can see I am not quite good enough with the camera to know how to handle such a high contrast shot, but you get the idea and hopefully the feeling of what nice sunny day it was.
We had quite a feast of turkey, cuy (roasted guinea pig), potatoes corn, salad, cranberry sauce, dressing, chochos (crunchy roasted corn kernels), pumpkin pie and pecan pie. Afterwards those who wished received a ritual cleansing from the shaman which drew out any negative energies around us. It was unlike any other Thanksgiving experience I’d ever had, and I will remember it with gratitude for years to come.
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