Pachacancha - Samantha Crozier

Through the glass window of our tour van, the landscape slowly shifted from the colorful, commercial part of Ollantaytambo, to the sleeping farms and mud brick houses at a town that looked like it belonged in a time from the past. Women wearing wide skirts and bright red hats clung to staffs as they herded sheep alongside the road and children in patterned poncho's ran by as our vehicle came to a stop. As we stepped out and breathed in the thinner air, we were led to a small lawn where at least a dozen women sat, sometimes with a child beside them, as they wove yarn and spun wool. They wore the same red hats, but each had a different brilliantly beaded chin strap that they had customized themselves. Our guide explained that these women were being organized into a cooperative by an NGO called Awamaki. Awamaki sells handmade textiles commercially to benefit the artisans. We watched in awe as the women quickly wove complicated patterns into the fabric and some of us even got to try our hand at spinning wool. We even got inside a typical home found in this rural town. At the end, all of us got a chance to purchase some of these brilliantly colored intricate textiles straight from the women whose deft hands created everything from scarves, to blankets, to beaded bracelets.