Guamote Market

Guamote is a small town whose population is overwhelmingly Kichwa, and on Thursdays it holds a market that fills the streets and the plaza and spills into a livestock ground on the edge: sheep, pigs, cattle and llamas traded from dawn, potatoes and grains sold from sacks, wool, rope, hats and tools, and vendors sitting on the ground with what they have brought down from the surrounding communities. Almost nobody comes for tourists, which is precisely why people who want to see a highland market that has not adapted to visitors are sent here. The town is otherwise quiet, low and cold at 3,050 metres, with a railway line running through it and a few restored buildings near the tracks.

What you actually see

• A market run for its own communities - little adapted to visitors.
• The livestock ground at dawn - sheep, cattle and llamas changing hands.
• Sacks of potatoes and grain - the produce brought down from the paramo.
• Kichwa dress across the crowd - the communities of the surrounding hills.

When to go

Thursday only, from before dawn until early afternoon. Half a day, arriving very early. The rest of the week the town is empty.

Honest expectations

Only Thursday. It is cold, muddy underfoot and crowded. There is little in the way of restaurants or facilities. Photographing people without asking is resented here.

Nearby

Riobamba is north; Alausi lies south.