Gualaceo

Gualaceo sits on the Santa Barbara river in a warm valley east of Cuenca and is the centre of the macana, the ikat shawl of the southern highlands, in which the threads are tied and dyed before weaving so the pattern emerges blurred at the edges as the cloth comes off the loom, then finished with hand-knotted fringes that can take longer than the weaving. A handful of family workshops in the outlying parish of Bullcay still do the whole process on backstrap and treadle looms, and welcome visitors. The town holds a large Sunday market of produce, animals and food, and its riverside is lined with restaurants serving hornado, the roast pork of the region.

History

Gualaceo was a stately centre of the Cañari diarchy of Hatun Cañar and Shabalula before the Inca. The Cañari cacique Llivicura guided the Spaniards Sebastián de Benalcázar and his companions over the hills to Gualaceo, and in April 1534 they set up a mining camp on the river they named Santa Bárbola, today's Santa Bárbara. From 1547 the bachelor Gómez de Tapia served as chaplain to the miners. In 1557 Gil Ramírez Dávalos came to the mining town, then called Santa Ana de los Ríos, with orders from the viceroy to found a new city, and on 12 April 1557 he set out with Captain Rodrigo Núñez de Bonilla, the priest Gómez de Tapia, Fray Tomás Calvo and 19 residents, guided again by Llivicura, to found Cuenca in the Paucarbamba valley. After that the settlement on the Santa Bárbara lost its Spanish name and a Cañari name took its place (Wikipedia, Gualaceo).

What you'll find

• Ikat macana shawls - threads tied and dyed before weaving.
• Hand-knotted fringes - the finishing that outlasts the weaving.
• Bullcay family workshops - backstrap and treadle looms still working.
• The Sunday market and riverside - produce, animals and hornado stalls.

When to go

Sunday for the market; workshops on weekdays when weavers are working. Half a day. Combined easily with Chordeleg on the same trip.

Before you go

Much of what is sold in the town centre is machine-made and imported; real macanas come from the workshops and cost accordingly. The market is ordinary if you have seen others. Sunday traffic is heavy.

Nearby

Chordeleg is a few kilometres on; Cuenca lies west.