The Spirit of Huaqillas

Huaquillas is the border town about 20 minutes away from my site.

Like any Latin American border town, it is pretty shady, contains an exciting street market where you can find anything you can think of, and is full of border town services.

There include a thriving contraband trade, merchants trying to smuggle good through customs, pick-pockets who escape to the other side of the border (no need to pass through customs, you just have to cross a bridge over Huaquillas’/Aguas Verdes’ version of the Los Angeles River, and you are in Peru), and money changers.

Your standard Huaqillas money changer sits on a plastic chair near the main taxi stand. He wears a pastel colored, button-down, short-sleeve shirt. Hair is normally slicked back or combed over, depending on hair line status. He may or may not have a pen in his ear. On his lap, he place a plain black or brown brief case, partially opened. In one hand, he has a calculator, in the other a wad of cash.

There isn’t just one or two of these guys, more like a batallion — lined up along the street to exchange your bills.

Now, I have not needed to support this sector of the economy because I can’t leave the country. But I can’t stroll through the market without noticing their presence.

So two days ago, I was looking for muffin tins in the market’s backstalls a block from the money changers — that is where they keep the cooking supplies (bootleg DVDs, stolen appliances, knock-off Armani, and three-dollar polo shirts are in the front stalls). Then I saw something that I thought was a mirage.

In front of me was this …



The Cambista Statue

What I like about this statue is its accuracy. If you look on the guy’s forearm, you will see what appears to be a tattoo. So as cartoonish as the guy may look, the uniform, build, and tattoo artwork is dead-on.

Instead of escaping its place as a border town that thrives on the border economy, Huaquillas has embraced it. The only issue with this statue is that it’s one block off the main strip so few people know it exists.

---

I haven’t been in Huaqillas during futbol season yet, but I imagine that when Comerical Huaqillas or Huaqillas F.C. makes it to the championship game that the Spirit of Huaqillas proudly sports the hometown colors.

---

I am hoping that this post will be the first in a series about Ecuador’s outstanding statues — a calendar, perhaps…..