Things from south of the South

I have been meaning to put pictures of these souvenirs on my blog for quite a while, but I never remem-
bered to take pictures of them when I was in the blogging mood. This morning I just finally decided to do it. I'm about a month overdue. Anyway, here are some things that I collected while I was in North Carolina. I came back with a lot more than just this, but these are the things I like most. Most of these items were gifts from people that I got to know pretty well. I will put them on in chronological order of when I got them.



The first two pictures are a little handmade clay doll from Ecuador, given to me by Nancy Guerra.


This is a pot holder, also handmade in Ecuador, also a gift from Nancy.




This is a knife with the Mexican flag on the handle and "Viva Mexico" on the blade. It's pretty sweet. I love Mexico so much. I want to go to Mexico City and Oaxaca and Guerrero and Michoacan, and Chiapas, and Monterrey, and Guadalajara and Guanajuato, and pretty much every other place in Mexico.



This is a wooden flute from Ecuador, I bought it from some of my friends who worked at Smiley's Flea Market in Fletcher, NC. They were real native Americans from Ecuador, and they spoke Spanish along with their native language. I talked to them often, as we went to the flea market almost every Saturday, and I was in the area almost eight months.


This is a replica of a very ancient and special artifact from Peru. It antedates the Inca civilization, but I don't remember anymore what the name of the civilization was. I will have to look that up. This was given to me by Raul Quino my last day in North Carolina. I love Peruvian people, they are so cool. I could live in Peru.

Well, that's all the souvenirs that I've taken pictures of for now. I'm rather fond of them.