Guaranda and Salinas

Guaranda is a beautiful small town high up in the Andes four hours from Guayaquil and two hours west of Ambato. The ride from Guaranda to Ambato is absolutely spectacular as you climb many thousands of feet up from the town of Guaranda which is at around 9000 feet. On the ride you skirt around a huge volcanoe by the name of Chimborazo. It is snow capped all year round, the descent into the town of Ambato is down a long narrow valley with some small villages along the way and off into the distance.

About an hour outside of Guaranda is a small town called Salinas which is literally at the end of the road. It is surrounded by gorgeous Alpine meadows and Andean peaks surrounding it. The town is quite special in regard to the fact that about twenty years ago or so, a small group of people, particularly one man introduced the town to making cheese, chocolate and textiles. Today they are a thriving small village that has world class products. It is nice to see people in the village with good jobs and the monies from the sales is distributed in a cooperative fashion which makes for a nice energy to the whole situation.

The town of Guaranda is very tranquil with a nice church at the center of the plaza. The market is simply spectacular, this town although it is tucked in the Andes many hours from any big city is completely self sufficient and independent of the global trade issues of food traveling thousands of miles on trucks.

I will continue to write about the people of Ecuador and how friendly and warm hearted they are, and in future posts will talk about the different people we have met as we travel around and live in this beautiful country.

The other day we met a young woman of college age while out on a walk in the hills outside the village. We spoke to her for a short time, and she offered to give us a ride to the top of the hill overlooking the whole entire town and valley. We spoke to her for about one hour entirely in Spanish and she told us about the people in the town and how tranquil the town was to live in.

On another occasion we befriended a local restaurant owner. He turned out to be a very interesting person, and we got the opportunity to speak with him for over an hour as he gave us a ride home from one of the side journey´s we went on. He just so happened to have another small restaurant in the town of Salinas. He told us all about Ecuador, and between his knowledge of English and our knowledge of Spanish we had a very nice talk.

We enjoyed meeting and speaking to a security guard at the local university. We spoke to him every day while he was on his guard, and he told us where to eat, what to do, and more general information about the town of Guaranda. I could go on and on about other very nice people we met in this lovely town.

In one of the next posts I will talk more about the Central Highlands of Ecuador and what it has to offer in the way of beautiful people, scenery and most importantly a really good feeling.