In the air

we picked up three hitchhikers on our way out of the Cajas national park. an image i think that will never leave my head: the province that Cuenca is in, Azuay, is where most of the illegal immigrants that go to Spain and Italy and the States to find work come from. So, these young adults go get jobs in Europe, and begin sending money home to their families, to build houses. the end result is you get these HUGE houses, scattering the countryside, with elevators and sattelite dishes and all these extravagances, but the people who inhabit them are still country bumpkins, Inca descendants, growing corn in their huge front yards and herding chickens out of their elevators. truly a land of contrasts.