Aloha Everyone,
Everyday J.J. and I see indigenous people in Cuenca. Many of them are the Cañari. They traditionally inhabited the modern provinces of Azuay and Cañar.
They have historical and cultural continuity dating back to the arrival of Europeans. Proud and individualistic, they live apart from the rest of the Ecuadorians.
One way you can tell the Cañari is the distinctive clothes they wear. Women wear very colorful skirts made of velvet. Usually the hems of their skirts are embroidered with complicated designs of their native village. Some wear scarves or jewelries wrapped around their neck. Their hair is kept long and breaded in single or double. They usually wear a Panama hat of various colors. When it rains, they wrap the hat with black plastic bag to prevent it from getting damaged.
Aloha -- Cathi