DEliTOUR: Chocolate City

Salinas, altitude 3500m, not to be confused with Salinas on the coast, is rightly known as the cheese and chocolate capital of Ecuador. The village is perched beneath rugged cliffs at the end of the picturesque, rolling valley at the confluence of two rivers. There are only about 700 residents. We were the only tourists. But there were 3 other gringos in town. By a stroke of diving coincidence the only other foreigners in the village were Mika, Timo and Jaakko; three young Finns on a long term project to educate the entrepreneurs of Salinas. A village with 80% of foreigners; Finns, a pizza restaurant, cheese, chocolate and... a football factory. Factory is a big word for the one room where the three staff inflated, spun, glued and painted the knock-off footballs that are seen in every sports shop in Ecuador and on every street.

We stayed at the cold (12 degrees inside) hostel of Senor Victor, the Samilagua. We had 7 very heavy blankets to control during a night´s sleep, and the living room fire couldn´t manage to remotely our room. But it was ace. Breakfasts on the square were lovely. Salinas is also known for its coffee, weaving and other dairy produce and crafts and we enjoyed it all, in patricular the lovely views down the valley. I played footy with the youth in the square, we played some great backgammon, and then the unthinkable happened.

The Finns´ weekly session with the local hoteliers, cheese makers (blessed they are too!), chocalatiers, football fabricators and other budding business people, was scheduled to be on marketing. I joined a million-making guest speaker from Guayaquil in lecturing to the throng in the freezing village hall. It was so remarkable because, probably for the first time I was naked; with no PowerPoint! Unthinkable indeed. Mika tranlasted line for line (something we could consider later for the Finnish market!!! - just kidding there) and I regailed about the joys of effective simple and singular messaging, and on my fave topic; marketing disciplnes, as well as a little on relevant cost-freer marketing techniques. The chaps were happy, and I had managed to make some parallels with the big brand world with relevance for some of our budding entrepreneurs. Of course, fans of my presentations will be pleased to know that I went on far too long and forgot to dwell on one of my key points - even 3continents away nothing new there!

Salinas was very hard to leave. It is a well known for being a success story, as its produce is even exported abroad, but it was so friendly and was so familiar-feeling that, even though it was bloody cold, it was one of our favourite places.