What a beautiful city

  Cuenca, Ecuador Saturday, December 26, 2015

When we were in Alausi, the plan was to go back to Guayaquil and get a bus straight to Peru which would have been something in the region of a 14 hour bus ride. There are some little towns along the beach in norther Peru we thought we could hang out in. However when we looked on-line at the accommodation available and the price we changed our minds. Lets just move further down Ecuador and see what's there instead Jody said. Accommodation is cheaper and much nicer in this place said Bryan. Where's that? asked Jody Cuenca (pronounced Kwenka) said Bryan And the city looks lovely said Jody after 5 minutes on google images Then that's where we will go we both said together.So just the night before we were due to leave we changed our minds about where to go. We love this flexibility you get with travelling. Ecuador or Peru. What a choice, and we are free to make it :-) Cuenca at an elevation of 2560 mtrs (8400ft) - is almost as high as Quito which is the world's highest Capital. (La Paz doesn't count for all those shouting out no it isn't right now - La Paz is only an administrative capital) Cuenca is Ecuador's 3rd largest city with a population of around 300,000. The centre of the city is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site (another one!) due to its many historical buildings and Cuenca is well known for its stunning architecture. After just 4 1/5 hours on the bus (much better than 14) we arrived at a modern clean bus station found a taxi and drove to the backpacker area with all the hostels. As we were not arriving late in the day, we hadn't booked a room anywhere but had somewhere in mind. However when we arrived it was fully booked (it hadn't been 5 hours ago when we checked) so off we went again on foot to find somewhere. The beauty of coming to an area like this is that all the hostels and cheaper hotels are very close together so it isn't a problem usually to find another.After looking at one or two we decided to get a cup of coffee in a nice looking restaurant (when we say nice we mean attractive - not posh). Whist we were sitting there using their internet to look for a room, we noticed a sign saying they had rooms. Funny that this place hadn't appeared on any of our searches. It was a little bit more than we wanted to pay at £25 a night but we looked anyway and the rooms were beautiful with a fabulous modern bathroom. We managed to haggle them down to £20 a night and we were relieved to give up on our search for the day. Its not easy rolling our bags around on these cobbled streets! The next morning after a great nights' sleep, we had one of the best breakfasts we have had in oh so long. The restaurant downstairs made their own rosemary focaccia bread and orange marmalade, served with cheese and wonderful tomatoes and a cup of tea. Heaven! We liked what we had seen of Cuenca so far but all the shops, museums and things of interest were closed as it was a holiday weekend. We couldn't really get a feel for the city and how it was normally.So our first couple of days here was spent walking around the streets and parks as they are always available. Still it was good to chill out a bit more. They have a river which runs along passed the old city where we are staying and it is beautifully kept and well looked after so that was nice to walk beside. They have lots of beautiful streets and buildings here which gives the whole place it's old colonial feel which makes it really interesting to walk around. We walked to the Inca ruins but they were all locked up too which was disappointing. But it seems as if all the best restaurants in Ecuador are here. In so many other places we have had to eat for the sake of eating rather than finding food we really like but here, we were bombarded with choices. Some of them need to open a restaurant somewhere else as they would be packed every night with tourists for sure. However on Monday 28th everything opened again.We took an open top bus tour so we could see where everything else was. This was supposed to be our last day here so we had to pack a lot in. The bus took us to the top of a local hill and view point so we could see the city below. It really didn't look big enough for 300,000 people. That's 100,000 more than Swindon and it didn't seem any bigger. At the top was a souvenir shop - priced for bus tours of course not like the little local stores we found later. But here we got to try a local alcoholic drink which they said was very traditional for this area. It was called Canelazo. It tasted like hot apple cider with a twist. Yummy! "Canelazo is a traditional spiced hot drink from the highlands in Ecuador. The recipe is made by boiling water with cinnamon and sugar or panela, and then it is mixed with a local sugar cane alcohol called punta or aguardiente." After the bus ride though we realised Cuenca still had more to offer and we wanted to see it. So at the last minute again, we decided to stay a few more days. We now planned to leave on Wednesday instead of Tuesday and went to get our bus tickets. Turns out we can only get a night bus but that's ok. We don't really like travelling at night as a) we miss all the scenery b) we don't want to get a tired driver on those mountain roads! But in this case we had no option so a night bus it is.So our last day we set off early and found the Inca ruins. This is a free attraction and we spent about an hour here. It's not Machu Picchu for sure but it was nice to go for a wander around. Below it is the restored gardens used by the Incas for growing crops and vegetables and further along they have an avery area (not for Bryan's family - the type that keeps birds!). Walking back into the city we found the hat factory & shop where they make the Famous Panama hats - not just made in Panama apparently. We walked through the main square again and over to the flower market where, we had learned from our bus tour, you can get a drink made only here and made from flower petals. Of course we had to try it and queued up with lots of little people pushing and shoving us to et their drinks. This is clearly popular we thought. Well it was awful! Of course it was going to be we knew that but you can't not taste it but we wish we had just bought one drink between the two of us though! We walked to the indigenous market too where we got some more craft things and watched the ladies doing some sort of spiritual cleansing with herbs. Locals told us this was called Curar el Espantó or Curar El Mal De Ojo and it means "How to cure the Evil Eye" Bryan took some video which you can see here We didn't give it a go as we didn't fancy being spat at!Then Bryan decided he really wanted to buy one of those Panama hats we saw being made back at the factory we visited earlier. Typical! So we walked all the way back there and he selected two different ones he liked. He didn't like the bands they had put on them though so after he had chosen some different coloured ones, we had a little wait whilst they put them on. Followed by free coffee - he was very chuffed with his purchases. Very weary now from all our walking, we made our final walk back to our guesthouse where they had kindly agreed to let us to use our room for the day. Here we could freshen up and we had a wonderful last meal in the restaurant downstairs. Definitely the best food in Ecuador is in Cuenca. Finally it was time to head to the bus station. Our bus was due to leave at 10pm and we made sure we were on it. Not long now and we would be in Peru. How exciting....   [gallery columns="4" ids="13897,13905,13912,13917,13923,13926,13933,13936,13945,13954,13962,13972,13979,13988,13996,14007,14016,14021,14029,14036,14042,14048,14053,14058,14064,14072,14078,14086,14092,14099,14104,14105,14111,14115,14120,14125,14128,14134,14138,14145,14149,14155,14159,14162,14164,14168,14170,14173,14176,14179,14183,14185,14187,14189,14193,14198,14200,14203,14204,14211,14214,14217,14220,14223,14224,14227,14230,14233"]