Cuenca

This city is a gem. What a lovely place to chill out and explore.

We arrived in the afternoon after an eight hour bumpy adventure bus ride. That was an interesting ride. The bus double-backed at one point for reasons unknown. We got crowded by a bunch of local’s crammed into the aisle. But we made it, somewhat delirious and tired.

Cuenca already had a different vibe to it. There was a tram, the streets were quite clean. It get’s called the “Athens of Ecuador,” online (We saw that once), and we haven’t been to Athens, but it does have a European vibe to it. More like a Seville, Spain, if I had to relate it to a European city I’ve been to. We checked into our hostel, and went on an adventure for a nice restaurant for dinner.

The highlight of Cuenca is certainly the Catedral de la Immaculada Concepcion. This massive church and its dome’s create some spectacular views over other unspectacular buildings around the city.

Through our three full days in the town, we explored a good chunk of it. There is a lovely little stream to take a stroll down. We had a little picnic date there, along with every other couple in the city by the looks of it. We impulse bought poncho’s, and spent way too much money to send them home (they wouldn’t fit in our bags). There was a museum detailing the history of the city university, which we fumbled through with the best of our Spanish. We got another explanation on the chocolate making process in a little hole in the wall chocolate shop. We checked out a flower market. We watched breakdancing. We tried sweets, satisfied our Indian food craving, and cooked some of our own meals for the first time in a long time.

Cuenca had more diverse food than any other place we visited in Ecuador. We had Chinese food, Indian food, and we had the best pizza ever. In the main plaza, there was a pizza joint that sold slices for a dollar and it was amazing. Getting our fix in before we have to budget for Peru.

We met an American woman while we were waiting in line for DHL. She was telling us about how she moved to Ecuador to retire early (she looked in her 50s), six years ago, and loves it here. Upon further inquiry, we learned that we could speak more Spanish than her, and she doesn’t like that there are more “Ex-Pats,” moving to Cuenca, and ruining the local charm. Self awareness apparently isn’t a strong suit of this self proclaimed executive coach. This was our first run in with an Ex-Pat (mini-rant, but what’s with this term. Is it cause immigrant is a dirty racialized term in America? The British chap who owned the bookstore that we met in Quito called himself an immigrant. Is this an American thing? A classist thing? Why don’t you learn Spanish if your planning on spending the rest of your life in a Spanish speaking country? I don’t get it.), and it was an eye-opening one for us.

There were two other cool museums that we explored. The first is the Museum of Aboriginal Cultures, which is a collection of artifacts recovered in Ecuador from indigenous tribes. There were 15 different rooms, each covering a certain time and region of Ecuador. You could notice some slight variations in the art styles. Lots of pots and ceramics have been recovered, alongside a surprising amount of figurine statues. It was all pretty cool to look at.

The highlight museum of Cuenca is the Pumapungo museum. This museum sits adjacent to the Pumapungo Inca ruin site, and also houses an art exhibit, indigenous cultures exhibit, and bird rehabilitation facility. The birds were a lot of fun, and very colorful. The ruins were interesting, though it was mostly old foundations. The paintings were beautiful. I think at this point, we have seen enough Ecuadorian paintings to say that the landscapes that are created here seem to be vastly underrated in the world art scene. Each piece feels so spectacular and serene.

The basement houses a museum about the history of money in Ecuador. We tried our best to figure out what was going on in there, but our Spanish unfortunately isn’t quite there yet.

Cuenca overall was a lovely city. Its a great spot for us to get organized before we head to Peru. We booked some future in demand adventures, loaded up on more socks and underwear, and got a basic itinerary for the future figured out. But before we go to Peru, one more adventure in Ecuador to do!