These musings are the memories I've created along my travels through the world. I caught the travel bug later in my life, after moving to Ecuador for a job opportunity. Since then, I've done travel through ten countries (from north to south: Canada, USA, Honduras, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile) with many more to come. Happy reading, and feel free to leave comments and questions on posts.
Cuenca... Ecuador, not Spain
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One year ago last weekend, I went to Baños. Surprisingly, I have not been back yet. But on weekends that are extended due to holidays, such as Guayaquil Day, I have to go far enough away from Quito. Not because I hate Quito... no. I love Quito, but I need to get out of the city sometimes. This three day weekend is brought to you by Cuenca, the furthest point south in Ecuador I have been so far. I really hope to make it to Loja soon, which is a bit further south.
The best city map I have seen in Ecuador! Historic Center of Cuenca
Anyway, the weekend not only marked Guayaquil Day but also the end of the first partial / making period / grading period. Brenda and I concluded that we both needed to go to Cuenca still, so we booked out tickets a few weeks in advance. That week, I feverishly worked my butt off with planning and grading so that I would have an uninterrupted experience from all things work-related.
Cuenca has an impressive 52 churches!
We (Brenda) booked a room at Hostal Yakumama, in the heart of the historic center. "LOCATION IS EVERYTHING," and this was the case with Yakumama. We arrived to the hostal around 9:30 PM and still hadn't eaten a proper meal. In Quito, we had a small sushi dinner pre-flight, but sushi is seldom a hearty filling meal. So, we set out to find something. This being our first time in Cuenca, we had NO idea where anything was so we started walking. And walking. And searching. Many bars and cafés were filled with people at this time because Ecuador was playing Argentina in a qualifying match for the 2018 FIFA World Cup... which they shockingly won! They also beat Bolivia this past Tuesday, and got one step closer to clinching a spot. As I am writing this, they are in second place, ahead of obvious favorites to qualify. The only team they are currently behind is Uruguay by one goal, with NO goals scored against them. I digress... we walked for a good fifteen to twenty minutes before we found a solid location named, Monday Blue. This is a food-spot I fully endorse. The menu is filled with more options than I knew what to do with, the service was quick, and the food delicious. The restaurant is covered from floor to ceiling (literally) with kitsch and souvenirs from the owner's travels, which provided us with many good laughs. After finishing, we were tired and headed back to the hostal. However, we got extremely turned around and kind of lost, so it took another good fifteen minutes to find. In the end, we realized that our place only about 10 edificios / buildings from the restaurant. Way to go with the #EpicWin #EpicFail.
Friday, we got a slow and relaxed start. Neither of us had a definite plan, except I knew I wanted to go to Chordaleg and Ingapirca. However, the order of which and when didn't matter much to me. Our day involved riding the City Tour Bus, for $8, through the south of Cuenca. It is different from the Quito Bus Tour in that the Cuenca bus didn't stop-and-drop-off apart from the Mirador de Turi. There sits a small, old, worn down church surrounded by artisanas. After the bus, we walked through a few city markets, and then onto the museums. The two museums we dared to go.
The first was supposed to have Ecuador's bank history, and that piqued our interests. In 2000, then-President Gustavo Noboa adopted the US Dollar for all of Ecuador, and the economy based on Sucres collapsed. It has since strengthened, but we don't know much about that history. So we go through the museum. First level is photography, paintings, and ancient Ecuadorian history-- like of the Cañaris and Incas. Okay. Second level is history and culture of the four regions in Ecuador-- Galapagos, Coast, Sierras, and the Oriente. We go to the basement, which looked like that weird part of Grand Ave Mall in Milwaukee, underneath the TJMaxx. The bank history taught us that each president of Ecuador (and its former identities before becoming Ecuador-proper) created their own currency. Each was a beautiful display showing all the coins and paper money that were used under each ruler. Last but certainly least, the dollarization history was size 48-font printed on an 8.5"x11" piece of copy paper. Que ridiculoso! Behind the museum was a small Incan ruin site, where someone thought it would be smart to build an immediately-adjacent-school. The ruins were pretty cool, and we watched some men and women dance in traditional Sierra costume.
Puente Roto
Street Art depicting Puente Roto
The other museum was for the "Panama Hat," which is of course the native product to Ecuador. This was less a museum than it was a shop floor and weaving factory. The museum itself occupied an area of 5 square meters and was literally locked and a, what seemed like, Carribean-Spanish-jail. It was cool to see all the different styles they produce, though. One day, I might get one and start wearing it?
Saturday brought us Ingapirca, which is Quechua/Kichwa for "Inca Wall." BONUS: we showed our VISAS and got admission the same as nationals. This was my first REAL Incan ruin to visit, and it was neat. I'll let the video below do most of the sharing.
I thought Ingapirca was in Azuay Province, because the map we were provided with made it appear that way. The ruins are, in fact, in Cañar Province, just north of Azuay. This post and video were updated to correct previous mistakes.
Last but not least was our day for shopping, Sunday. The markets we were thinking about visiting, time-permitting, were Gualaceo, Chordaleg, and Sigsig. We were pretty exhausted by this day, between all the going-moving-shaking and the lack of sleep from noisy hostal guests, so it was up in the air of how many stops we would make.
The main cathedral in Gualaceo, Azuay, Ecuador
Gualaceo was a bustling little town. The meat market and cafeteria were hopping! There wasn't much for us to see so we didn't spend much time there. We got in the next bus out to visit Chordaleg. Let me tell you, this is my imagination of where I want to retire. Small, but spacious. A lush plaza. Stone-paved streets and houses with tiled-roofs. Tons of shopping. Mind you, I don't buy souvenirs almost ever. I walked out of this little town with pottery and cooking tools and a smile on my face.
The main cathedral in Chordaleg, Azuay, Ecuador
Cuenca was pretty bad-ass and I cannot wait to go again.
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