Getting to know Quito has been a grounding experience. I think I have generously adopted the phrase ‘hay de todo’ which I use often at the moment. Put simply ‘there’s something of everything.’ There is poverty but also a lot of relative wealth. In Quito you can pretty much find anything you want. And the same cannot be said about Tena.
My experience of Ecuador is so based on my experience of the culture in Tena. There it is so the norm to have your own business, it comes as second nature and isn’t such a big deal. I like that people are so enterprising, be it out of necessity or not. When you have specific trades, specific places to buy things the value is so much greater than the ‘super’market which sells a homogenous standardized version of everything. Micheal has a large copper pan which he likes to make granola in. It’s his Grandmother’s and is beautifully crafted, indeed priceless. A visitor to the house asked how much it cost., in the tone of asking where he bought it. Even here crafts are beginning to be forgotten as ‘super’ shops and mass production along with an unhealthy does of advertising and consumerism take hold.
An antidote. The organic market in the central park in Quito – the preoccupation an all energy spend in the last few days has been getting things ready for this. Harvesting, washing, polishing, peeling and packing vegetables.
Another early start after being up after peeling beans.. the market was full of people and their products. Beautiful cheese, chocolate, vegetables. It was great to be in a plcace with people who all shared the same values. And fascinating to meet with different people to most I’d meet in Tena. Women with their dogs, some in running tracksuits and oversized sunvisors. People asking what the vegetables were we were selling, how to cook them, where they come from. I assume so much that it’s just me who finds things here foreign – It appears agriculture is also a more foreign concept to many who live in Quito. Spending time in Tena, for me shopping is to go to the market, not the supermarket. When in Quito confronted with a visit to Supermaxi (giant supermarket) I am overwhelmed with the choice but also the prices!
For me what’s interesting about the organic market is that no one is in competition with each other. The prices are agreed and set by the market consensus. And the prices are less than the supermarkets for great quality products. The market is not aimed to exclude people who cannot afford organic products. I’m not sure of the reality of transferring this to the UK but I don’t think organic should be marketed so much as it is in the UK as an exclusive product for a minority who can afford it.
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