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The experience of spending the day with Maria Juana really got me thinking. Here we are traveling the world talking to people about oneness asking them to share how it relates to their lives, culture, traditions, and to the entire world, and we encounter people living in a state of oneness with their surroundings and they can't describe it. What does that say about the rest of us? Have we gotten so removed from that relationship to the earth and our environment that all we can do is theorize and talk about it? We talk about how we could live in that way, how we need to change this and that to become aware of the fact that what we think is separated really is not. Here were people who never thought of the idea of oneness in their lives and yet, the way they lived (as simple as it is by modern western standards) was a lot closer that anything I have seen to date on our travels these last few months.

We spent the morning shooting b-roll in the village of Agua Longo, wandering the dusty streets meeting people on their way to the market in Otavalo, the largest market of the area where the locals go to sell their meats, vegetables and handicrafts. I was again struck by the stark contrast to the way we live in the US. Not just the difference as far as a 'standard of living' but the pace and flow of time. Time moves so much slower here, there seems to be no rush to get things done, yet things get done all the same. There is not the same frantic rushing energy that drives people to be productive at every minute of the day. I know these are not new observations, and probably often observed by many people on their first visit to countries like Ecuador, but I think we could all learn a little bit about the flow of time from the people here, as they honestly looked a hell of a lot happier than most people I see back in the US.

After 4-5 hours of filming in the village we headed into the town of Otavalo to check out the famous market. Stalls full of vegetables and fruit bright with colors, freshly killed animals hanging from hooks, large pots stirred over an open flame by old women, venders hawking their wares and the occasional tourist, and locals buying their weekly food all filled the crowded streets. We walked around the market filming for a couple of hours with the children following us checking out the cameras.

The market was a mix of the old and new, with carts filled with cell phones and DVDs alongside bags of potatoes and corn. It was noisy and filled with the aromas of cooked pork (they are into pork here, almost as many roasting pigs as there were people) and empanadas cooking in hot oil. The indigenous people of this area are beautiful people, especially the women, who wear the traditional clothing and many bright gold beads around their necks, filling the air with the sounds of their Quicha language as they buy and sell fruit and vegetables. It was after five o’clock when we loaded our gear back in the car and headed back to Tumbaco and the home of our host Juan Alfonso.

Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee