Queen of Water

The scariest part of this story for me was how true it rang to my own experience.  I was in Ecuador in 1999 and behaved just like the tourists that Resau and Farinango describe.  I thought the indigenous part of the Ecuadorian culture was the coolest part.  The Incan part.  That was why I went to Ecuador in the first place.  To climb the mountains the indigenous called home, see the indigenous villages, and buy indigenous products, like hand sewn ponchos with condors on them.  The fact that there is such division between the indigenous and the mestizos was surprising.  It looked, from the outside, like the cultures had blended together seemlessly.  Now that I know this isn't true, I would like to return and take another look.  I guess I will need to learn Quichua to really see the other side.  The indigenous side.  The side that existed before the mestizo side.  The side that called Ecuador home a long time ago.