Out There

Life has been eventful lately, maybe too much so, but I had the opportunity to go to Canar on Sunday. This is a town whose population appears to be mostly indigenous and who seemed to be unused to tourists visiting.

The market was clearly patronized by the locals and had no crafts targeted to tourists. There were a few stalls supplying the traditional skirts, which were worn by the majority of the women.

We noticed that women of all ages wore heavier socks--sometimes tights, sometimes knee socks, sometimes ankle socks, sometimes having some color or style correlation to the outfit, but quite often, as in the case above, seemingly as a utilitarian after thought (notice the USA logo on some of the socks!). The footwear was sturdy and practical and reminded me of shoes a schoolgirl might wear. There was something of a visual disconnect between the above-the knee and below-the-knee areas!

We also noticed both men and women wearing these round white hats with small balls dangling either on the front or on the back of them. I asked someone if these balls had any significance and I was told balls hanging on the front meant the person was single, while balls hanging on the back meant they were married. I love these kind of coded messages!

Some sellers hawked home remedies and there seemed to be a pretty good market for them. This one was an all purpose tonic

while this one was specifically for the treatment of arthritis.

These children were selling aromatic burning wood and incense. It had the heady earthy fragrance found in church interiors.

There were several items ingeniously fabricated out of rubber tires, including several types of containers.

And these fantastic rubber sandals, which looked to be of ancient times.

Things have been a bit discouraging lately, on several fronts, but life does manage to go on.