The name Salinas comes from the salt springs that gave the village its first economy. For centuries, residents boiled brine from local seeps to produce salt, a grueling process that yielded modest returns and did not lift anyone out of poverty. When Antonio Polo arrived from Italy via the Salesian missions and Operación Mato Grosso in 1971, the community was struggling with the aftermath of a crashing salt market. Polo, with help from Swiss volunteers, proposed that the residents form cooperatives to diversify their production. The first was a dairy, begun in 1973, which used local milk to make Swiss-style cheeses. The brand Salinerito, registered in 1978, was born, and it quickly became one of Ecuador's premium cheese labels. What came next was not another product, but a philosophy. Every new enterprise in town would be owned by the people who worked in it, and the profits would stay in the community.

Today Salinas de Guaranda supports more than two dozen community-owned enterprises. The cheese cooperative produces wheels of gouda, mozzarella, and aged varieties that reach restaurants across the country. The chocolate workshop buys cacao from neighboring farms and processes it into bars, truffles, and cocoa powder sold under the Salinerito name. A wool mill spins alpaca and sheep wool into yarn and weaves it into sweaters and scarves. Dried mushrooms from local forests, dehydrated fruit, essential oils from Andean herbs, handmade soccer balls, and cured sausages all emerge from workshops that operate on the same cooperative model. The community also runs a tourism office, and a $5 ticket covers guided tours of multiple workshops. What a visitor sees is not a factory tour but a working economy: men and women making products they own a share of, under conditions they negotiated collectively.

The landscape around town holds more than cooperatives. Salt formations left over from the old mining operations still rim the valley, eerie white crystals visible in the dry months. A natural salt-water spring continues to flow, and visitors can still see where the community once boiled it down. The Farallones de Tiagua, a set of vertical rock cliffs rising above town, offer a 15-minute walk from the center to a viewpoint that takes in the surrounding Andes. Footpaths connect nearby indigenous villages like Pachancho, Natahua, and Yurakucsha, where the cooperative movement has spread and where weaving traditions remain central. Longer hikes reach Chazojuan, with its waterfalls and clear rivers, or drop two days into the subtropical cloud forest around Piedra Blanca and San Luis de Pambil. Local guides are necessary for the longer routes; the trails are not well marked, and the weather at altitude can turn in minutes.

The traditional drink of Salinas is called Pajaro Azul, Blue Bird, a sugarcane liquor infused with mandarin, pineapple, and other ingredients that varies from bar to bar and bottle to bottle. The color is an improbable blue. Local businesses serve it, and anyone who asks around will find someone happy to pour a glass. The typical food is roast guinea pig with potatoes, an Andean staple that dates back to pre-Inca cuisine. But the cooperative economy has produced its own culinary innovations. Pizzerias in town use Salinerito cheese, local sausage, and dried mushrooms from the community workshops. The result is recognizably pizza and recognizably Ecuadorian at the same time, a small demonstration of what happens when a traditional economy refuses to stay traditional and instead adapts the tools of global commerce to local ends.