Queso! (and my sixth sense)

I love cheese. I also love chocolate. Do you know what exists in Ecuador? A town that specializes in producing cheese and chocolate. Do you know what could possibly be better than a town that produces cheese and chocolate? A three day cheese festival in said town, that's what!

Yesterday, I went to Salinas, a small town about a half and hour from Guaranda, for a festival that was all about cheese. There was music, lots of foreigners, and most importantly, free food! I couldn't tell you how many different types of cheese I tried, but they were all delicious. I don't have any real cultural insights about the festival, except maybe that celebrations of food seem to be pretty universal. You could probably go to any country in the world and find food fests. We humans like to eat good food, and I cant tell you how happy it makes me that sometimes people organize events where we can all eat good food together :)

The weather in Ecuador is even more unpredictable than the weather in Denver. It was beautiful and warm in the morning and suddenly, the fog rolled in. I was so happy to have taken my mom's advice and packed my winter jacket, because when it gets foggy like this, its cold.

There were a few different musical performances, this guy was from the US, and could not only sing beautifully in Spanish, he was a phenomenal guitar player!

These are the natural salt mines just outside of Salinas. Water collects in little naturally formed pools, and when the water evaporates, salt is left behind.

I spent the hole time at the salt mine with my camera glued to the floor, because it was a million different colors and textures.

Part of the festival was some guys doing tricks on bikes. I'm not sure exactly how it relates to cheese, but it was interesting anyway.

One part of the festival was a 2 kilometer relay race, where each team member had to run while carrying this enormous hunk of cheese. My friend Rebecca and I almost participated, and then were glad that we didn't when we saw the cheese and were told it was 2 kilometers, not 200 meters. 

Two of the cheese-runners, at the starting line.

My friend's brother, finishing out the race for his team. They got second place.

Another one of the musical performers. I really enjoyed their matching ponchos!

As I mentioned before, there were lots of foreigners at the festival. As an exchange student, or probably just by living in a foreign country, you gain an expert ability in spotting other foreigners, and an uncanny ability to guess where they're from. Now of course in Ecuador, its easy to tell who isn't Ecuadorian, because all of the Ecuadorians look so similar. What was a little more surprising was that you can somehow tell the difference between the Italians, the Germans, the Americans, etc. I don't really know how to describe it, but I could tell that the few Americans were american. They just looked like it.  My friend said it's like we exchange students have a sixth sense for detecting other foreigners and where they're from. I think its true, and its a nice sense to have, because even if the foreigners we see are complete strangers to us, there's something comforting about seeing them. Its like someone is saying "Hey look, don't worry, you're not the only one!"

Hasta luego,

Elisa