GUAYASAMIN: Ecuador's Picasso

The plane left Miami 1 1/2 hours late due to "having to fix a broken part". It was a four hour flight to Quito arriving at the airport there about 10:00 pm. There was a light rain. When we started descending my seatmate, a native of Guayaquil (the largest city in Ecuador) told me not to get frightened because we had to go in between two mountains and make a sharp turn to the left...we did and all of a sudden you could see all the lights of the runways. Quito now has a large new modern airport about 35 miles from the city. So I check out through Customs, get a taxi and head for the Magic Bean Hostil in downtown Quito where I have a reservation. The entrance gate was locked, but a guard came immediately and opened it. This building was an old colonial-type house with a restaurant (a very good one) on the ground floor with rooms and dormatories on the first floor....yes, what we call the second floor is the FIRST floor down there...I have a bedroom with bath and also a kitchenette. I was tired and retired right away after having noticed some framed prints on the wall of the bedroom. The next morning I looked at them and saw all were done by someone named Guayasamin. Little, at that time, did I know what a great abstract artist he had been. I felt somewhat ashamed not already knowing who he was having taken a couple of courses in Art History at the University, but after all that was 50+ years ago. So, on Friday I take a bus to Otavalo, about 40 miles North of Quito. That alone was an experience. There are no speed laws down there except, I was told, during school hours. So here we go up and down hills and mountains at a high rate of speed. The highway was excellent being part of the international highway system. (About now my brother would have said, "Well, get on with the story") A day or two later, while having stopped to listen to a flute player at the edge of the hugh Arts & Crafts Market, I asked someone standing near me for the directions to a Travel Company that I had written on a piece of paper and he said, "But there is one much closer and a lady there speaks English also. It was located at the other end of the market. He said it was the one he used. He kindly escorted me there where I made a reservation on the TAME Airline from Quito to Loja being en route by bus to Vilcabamba. This gentleman who spoke five languages happended to be a retired college professor. He invited me join him for lunch at what he said was the best restaurant in Otavalo located at the North end of the big Market. He said he ate lunch there everyday as one could get a discount by buying a month-long meal ticket. The food was good. There were cloth tablecloths with fresh flowers on each table. The men waiters wore white jackets. So, to get along with the story a day or so later he escorted me to the Peguche Waterfall telling me that on way back from the waterfall he wanted me to see "the music museum". So we stop part way down the hill and go down the walkway to this building, which serves also as a house. Their garden was a corn patch and seemed that and other vegetables were grown in some of the yards. Anyway, it was obvious he knew the man who greeted us, then a couple of elderly women came out to greet him also. So while he was talking to them, I wandered down this dimly lit hallway where there was more light at the end. When I got there I saw three large framed watercolor paintings..........and, what do you know, they were all three signed by who else but GUAYASAMIN. They each had glass over them, so I got to touch each one. But, what on earth were these very, very valuable original paintings doing here? About this time, my newly acquainted friend came up and I inquired of him about it. He said Guayasamin gave them to a friend who later died, and he being a friend, or was it a relative, to these people that lived inherited them. (I later learned that these works of art were each valued from $75,000.00 - $100,000.00 each) What a coincidence that after having first becoming acquainted with Guayasamin by seeing the prints at the Magic Bean Hostel, I later see three of his original paintings. (There was a Guayasamin Museum in Quito, and I regret deeply that I did not go there). So, this is my Guayasamin story and I am so glad it happened. (PS: I forgot to say that the only music related item I recall seeing there was a CD by some well known Ecuadorian Organist. My friend handed it to me, but I told him, no thanks, I would buy it if it were by a local playing their national instrument, the flute. Well, maybe there was one old instrument on display. On the way to the Waterfall, where the taxi could not go any further because the road stopped, this friend said, "Wait, here I want to talk to this lady in the Gift Shop" It appeared to me from my viewpoint, there was nothing in the Shop to sell. I mention these things because it seems some of these folks quietly and tactfully are trying to get you to buy things to help the local economy. I didn't mind that because I knew most of them were so poor. On more than one occasion, the first thing a taxi driver asked you, when you had hired his service, was "Did you come to buy land"? If so, I am sure he had connections with local real estate dealers. The second question some asked was, "Where youse wife?"...well, I always had a good answer so that ended that line of questioning. I was there during the rainy season but I saw very little rain. Most tourists visit during the "dry" season, which, I think begins in June and last about 6 months.