Indigenous Clothing in Corso Parade Ambato 2009

The first three women in today's photos are all wearing the same type of dress. I published photos showing similar dress yesterday. I didn't catch where this group was from, but it surely is somewhere in the rainforest lowlands east of the Andes, known as El Oriente in Ecuador.

This banner says "Palora", which is a town south of Puyo in El Oriente.

These young people were part of the Palora group.

I've never been to Palora, but I have been to El Puyo, which is very close. Puyo is the first major city (the term is relative) you hit in El Oriente east of Baños.

The countryside around El Puyo is flat, hot, and traced with wide, shallow rivers. Usually the mountains to the west are hidden in clouds, so when you do see them, it is almost a shock. There is a lot of green and it is nice to have forest around you after the fields of the hoyas in the Sierra.

The feel of the populated areas in El Oriente is quite different from the feel of the populated areas in the other two major regions of Ecuador, the sierra and the coast. El Oriente has a different history than the sierra and the coast, with many indigenous people not westernized until the second half of last century, and some not westernized still, although any people that are still not westernized live quite far to the east, away from any populated areas. The towns in El Oriente are sleepier than they are in the sierra, at least by day. The area is quite beautiful though, and appeals to a lot of people.