Last Sunday, we drove again through the Andean farming country to visit another weaving cooperative at Chinchero. Along the way, we travelled through herds of sheep and cattle. We saw one woman dressed in traditional attire, sitting on the hillside knitting, while she tended her sheep.
The weaving cooperative at Chinchero was started in 1996 and represents a different 9 communities and weaving traditions from the ones we visited at Amaru. We were greeted warmly as they covered rock walls with woven blankets for us to sit on. Then they served us a cup of coca tea. This tea is good for preventing altitude sickness and we have consumed large quantities. I hope no one has to take a drug test in the near future!
The ladies demonstrated their backstrap weaving and dyeing techniques. They were dress exquisitely and wore stockings and lace petticoats under their colorful skirts. Each one wore an embroidered blouse, a vest and an elaborately beaded and embroidered jacket. In our broken Spanish (they actually speak Quechua) we learned that their husbands do the embroidery on their clothing by machine. They also showed us how to wrap the bundles, including babies, that they carry on their backs all day and continue their work of knitting, weaving, farming or herding. Amost every Andean woman always has a bundle on her back.
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