Caña Crazy (Part 1)

People here are crazy for caña (sugar cane) in all its manifestations.

I have already written about the taffy that is made from the boiled down jugo de caña. Ecadorians also like the jugo straight and they enjoy chewing on the cane.

Because this is a big holiday in Baños that brings a lot of visitors to town, the caña vendors have set up booths near our hostal.

Since we got here a few days ago they have been preparing the canes to sell. Most are cut into foot long lengths and bundled in bundles of eight. You can buy these (for chewing, I assume) or you can buy the fresh squeezed juice.

The juice is surprising good -- not as sweet as you might expect. Less sweet than a soda pop. It´s interesting to see how all the vendors set up right next to one another with the exact same product and probably at the same price. Not the way they would have you do it in business school, but it must work here.