We were visiting the Pumapongo Museum and came upon these dancers. We know they are from an Ecuadorian mountain tribe, but we do not know much more. The song and narration were in Quechua, the native language of these indigenous people. They may be descendants of the Canari with their distinctive alpaca chaps, brilliant embroidery and curving hide hats. We hope through seeing these images you can experience the dance as we did, a sweep of color and culture on a sunny morning in Cuenca.
MedFlies 
So exotic, those costumes are really something. Thanks for sharing!
Since we saw this our Ecuadorian history and culture teacher confirmed that these alpaca chaps are worn throughout the Andes, Ecuadorian cowboys…
Wow, what a wonderful celebration to come upon!!! Such beautiful colors, interesting instruments and I’m sure the music was a delight upon your ears and hearts!! I wonder why the women have colorful strings covering their faces?? Maybe the sun is too intense? The clothes, hats and other attire are so beautiful creative also. Thank you for sharing and enjoy the last few weeks of your Equadorian adventure.
Much love from Fanny and Victoria ❤️💃🏼❤️
One of the wonderful aspects of Ecuadorian clothes and weaving is their brilliant colors, inspired by the sky and birds I believe. We have two five-inch hummingbirds at our feeders everyday, a deep iridescent green.
Truly spectacular. I also see fine leatherwork and beautifully crafted instruments. How lucky for you to see them.
We were lucky. We revisited the museum not knowing they were there. Just happened upon them playing their flutes, drums and dancing quite wonderful. You can’t really tell she is a little girl in one of the striped wool fringe hats but she was dressed identically to her mother. And she was a good dancer. Really made her skirt and hat sway.