Mission Accomplished, 4 weeks to spare

Three things I wanted to do while in Ecuador:

1. Improve my Spanish. (After only 3.5 weeks of studying, it is already mucho mejor).
2. Learn new rueda moves and dance with some amazing salsa partners. Also done, though I would have rather learned more rueda moves than I have, it doesn't seem like that is going to happen. Still, I'm happy with what I've picked up and even though there's only two men who will ask me to dance here in Cuenca, they're both amazing dancers.
3. Buy inexpensive, locally-spun wool yarn. I just returned to the school with a large garbage bag full of hand-spun, hand-dyed wool yarn. Yes, it took me almost four weeks to find real wool yarn in Cuenca (or as the locals efficiently call it, "hilo de lana de borrego"). There is a different sense of quality here... most knitters and crocheters that I've either met or seen seem to be perfectly happy to work with crunchy acrylic yarn. Perhaps because it is cheap and easy to wash? Not sure.

For awhile I felt rather hopeless at my prospects of finding good yarn. All of the yarn stores I passed were full of acrylic. The Naddy Lite of yarns. But a couple weeks ago my Spanish instructor went with me to the Otavaleño craft market and helped me ask the vendors where I could buy wool yarn (and by helped me ask, I mean she asked herself). They said at the 12 de abril market on Thursdays.

Today I walked down there, beginning near the center of town and repeatedly asking people where the market was, then once in the market, where one could buy wool yarn. I kept zeroing in on the location, until finally someone said, "That woman, right over there in the white truck! She's packing up to leave so hurry!" I ran over there and was able to paw through bags and bags of wool yarn of all sorts of colors. The rich, dirty smell of animal inhabited the bags. I bought 5 skeins, all of different colors. These skiens are large enough to make 2 sweaters apiece.

I am very satisfied now. The only question that remains is how to get it home?