Puyo

Puyo
Puyo Market
A Sunday in Puyo today! My fears of it being very quiet in Puyo on a Sunday with everyone going to Church were soon quashed when Keith, the hostal owner, informed me that it was market day. I love markets. Puyo´s market is one for the locals, not a tourist stall in sight, and very few tourists for that matter. It was all hustle and bustle with sales of clothes, fruit and veg, fish, meat, chicken, dead and alive, spices, grains and loads of other stuff, not to mention the odd guinea pig cooking on a spit - a regualr dish here still, and not just a delicacy for the tourists. With phrase book in hand I managed to purchase a very fetching, pair of wellies - this wasn´t just a whimsical purchase, I shall need them for my Amazon adventure over the next two weeks. From the market I took a stroll along the river Puyo, where lots of others were out for a Sunday stroll, even though it kept spitting with rain and the going was rather treacherous as the path was cobbled, with very uneven and wet cobbles. There was also a medicinal botanical garden, owned by the Shuar people, where I was taken for a guided walk around the jungle and shown all the plants that are used for medicine as well as tool making, cooking, housing, jewellery and burning. I ate leaves from the cinnamon tree, smelt the leaves used to flavour things lemon and had my ankle painted with the sap of a tree - it is usually used for face paint but as the colour matched my shoes it was more fitting to have my ankle done (I was wearing orange shoes!). I am off to the Amazon tomorrow for my first bout of volunteer work so I will not be posting for a while. xx