Blue
Saturday, June 22nd, 2013 :: 12:12 pm
Towering Giant
Thursday, April 4th, 2013 :: 10:39 pm
Rainy Gastown
Monday, January 7th, 2013 :: 12:33 am
Just a normal day in Gastown. Did you know that the bricks on the roads were all transported on ships from China back in the days?
Amaru Weaving
Tuesday, December 4th, 2012 :: 11:31 pm
Amaru is a Peruvian village that might not be so well known as Pisac village, which is 45 minutes away. We visited here on the day prior to hiking on the Inca trail. Our guide had originally booked a lunch for us here (which was the traditional Cuy, or guinea pig). Unfortunately even basic telephone technology, which we’ve taken much for granted, doesn’t work as well, and our guide told us that they hadn’t prepared the meal for us. Fortunately though, they were still able to show us their weaving techniques and textiles they’ve made!
We were shown how they made alpaca wool from raw fur with spinners. To get the colours, they would rely on natural dyes found in plants, insects, dirt, etc. I was surprised that they were able to have most of the colours we see in clothing today – slightly less bright.
The patterns that they would incorporate all have special meaning to them, and they were taught by their moms when they were as young as 7 or 8 years old. It’s pretty incredible that all the patterns that they build into the textiles are memorized. A regular scarf would usually take around a month to complete, with 6-8 hour days. Can imagine that? On top of that, they would sell these for about $150 USD. Talk about some intense work! They also make other great items like coin bags and bracelets – we would use our broken Quechua to communicate with them.
I love visiting small villages like these and finding out more about their culture and traditions.