The Secret of Ecuador's Guilds
By Suzan Haskins
By Suzan Haskins
"This may be the cleanest town I've ever seen in Latin America," my husband said as we walked after dinner one night.
I agree. The residents of
Cotacachi keep their little town very tidy. There are no holes in the
sidewalks to trip over, no vacant lots piled with litter.
Children ride bikes around
town without adult supervision, teenagers congregate in the plaza at
night to chat or sing songs or nibble on ears of corn or chicken kabobs
seared on a kettle grill under a streetlamp on the corner.
This is Ecuador's famous
"leather" town, high in the Andes mountains, where artisan shops line
the main street and you can buy any type of leather item, from a saddle
for your horse to booties for your baby. Prices for these items are 50%
to 75% less than you would pay in the U.S.
In Cotacachi, Ecuador, life is easy, simple, natural... and cheap.
At night the artisan shops
close up and only a few restaurants and small mom-and-pop shops are
open. That's all you need, really. After a day of sunshine in the
8,000-foot-altitude mountain climate, nighttime is for sleeping. The
cool, crisp air smells faintly of wood smoke, roasting corn, and
eucalyptus. Eucalyptus trees grow abundantly wild, as do palm trees.
Think Breckenridge without
the pretension or the snow, and you'll come close to imagining
Cotacachi. It's what those of us who came of age in the 1970s hoped life
would be: easy, simple, natural.
And incredibly affordable, too. As elsewhere in Ecuador, your dollars stretch to astonishing lengths.
In 2008, we bought our own
condo in Cotacachi. We purchased it from the builder, pre-construction,
for $52,000. It's a top-floor penthouse of a little more than 1,000
square feet with a fireplace, sunroom, outside terrace, and mountain
views.
If you need upscale creature
comforts like a gourmet meal or (and I don't say this lightly) one of
the world's best spa treatments, you'll find both at the five-star La
Mirage Hotel and Spa on the edge of town.
The famous market town of
Otavalo is just 15 minutes away should the shopping urge overcome you.
Fresh produce can be bought there or at Cotacachi's open-air Sunday
market. Or go to the nearby city of Ibarra to the modern supermarkets,
or the mega malls of Quito, one of the largest and most sophisticated
cities in South America, just two hours south.
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