Cuenca
After the hike in El Cajas National Park we continued on to Cuenca.
(Click on each image to see the high-resolution version)
Cuenca - Arrival
After settling in, we took a walk in town. Our hotel, Casa San Rafael, basically sits almost equal distance between two plazas: the larger Parque Calderon which is the main plaza in Cuenca, and the smaller Parque San Blas, both within just a few minutes of walk. As night fell, we walked to the smaller plaza. Iglesia de San Blas (San Blas Church) which sits at the eastern end of this plaza, quickly became our favorite church. It is really picturesque, especially at this moment when the full moon was rising behind its belfry.
San Blas Church
San Blas Church
Cuenca - Around Town
When we travel, we tried to strike a balance between seeing more places and experiencing places more deeply. With time always at a premium, this is not easy to do. With so many interesting towns in the central part of Ecuador, one can easily spend weeks hopping from one town to another. Since we only had about a week for this part of our trip, we decided to stay in two cities: Cuenca and Quito. We had a total of 4 days in Cuenca, and this allowed us to explore it more thoroughly.
On our second day here, we first walked to the main plaza, Parque Calderon. It was drizzling, and a Rufous-collared Sparrow, probably one of the most widespread bird in Central and South America, caught my eye. This is a bird that I had seen in Costa Rica, and one that I would see many times on this trip.
Rufous-collared Sparrow
Rufous-collared Sparrow
Now we got to visit the New Cathedral of Cuenca, or officially Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. At this point, it was raining and we just went inside to see its cavernous interior. The exterior pictures are posted later on this page.
New Cathedral of Cuenca
New Cathedral of Cuenca
In the courtyard of a the church, we saw some art exhibits made of beans. Quite interesting. The signature of these pieces says "Diego Velez Leon", however, even in this age of Google, I could not find the artist.
Bean Art
Bean Art
Cuenca certainly has a "Colonial" air to it, with picturesque scene almost at every corner. The following pictures in this section were taken during our time in Cuenca, not necessarily on the same day.
Patio
Patio
Cuenca Street
And the churches! By some statistics, more than 90% of the population in Cuenca is Catholic, some say it boasts as many as 52 churches. The following is a list of the ones I photographed, and I think they are pretty representative.
San Blas Church
Iglesia el Buen Pastor (The Good Shepherd Church)
Iglesia de San Alfonso
Iglesia de San Alfonso
New Cathedral of Cuenca
Old Church of Cuenca (Iglesia del Sagrario)
San Jose de la Merced
Provincial Court Of Justice
Cuenca
Cuenca - People
When I travel, I don't typically take pictures of the local people. I know some people are very interested in the cultural aspect of the places they travel to, and some almost exclusively take pictures of the local, especially indigenous people. This is certainly all good, but it is just not my focus.
That being said, I typically take a few people pictures on my trips, if nothing else, at least to highlight the cultural aspect of a place. In Cuenca, the opportunity simply presented itself -- on our second day in the city, there was a protest against the abuse of children by the church. As the protestors marched down the streets around Parque Calderon, I could not resist snapping a few pictures.
Protest
Protest
Protester
Protester
On another day, on a quiet street, we saw an Ecuadorian couple simply minding their own business. I captured this authentic moment.
Ecuadorian Couple
Cuenca - Markets
We also visited a couple of markets. These are markets that the locals patronize, not really tourist-oriented, another slice of local life.
Butcheress
Vegetable Vendor
Cheese Vendor
Cuenca people are also known for their love of flowers, and there is a flower market near the New Church. A people that love flowers cannot be bad!
Flowers
Flowers
Cuenca - Cuy
Ah, cuy, or Guinea pig. Before we went to Ecuador (and South America for that matter), we had heard about how they eat the cuy. We had never eaten a rodent before! We wanted to try it just for the sake of it. In both Guayaquil and Cuenca, and later in Quito, we asked people if they like to eat cuy. It is curious to note that people in Guayaquil will say "yeah, it's something you should try, but ... " (with cringing looks on their face), while the highland people will say definitively that they like it.
At last we would try it. The place to get cuy is Avenida Don Bosco. We took a cab ride there, and the driver dropped us off at a "Picanteria" (lunchtime restaurant). Sure enough, there were smokes from the roasting cuys (and pigs) coming out of the kitchen.
Picanteria Crespo
Cuys
Cuys
Cuy
Cuy chef
Despite all the anticipation, the actual dish was a little disappointing: the cuy does not have much meat, and however little it has, it is very tough and gamy. The skin was roasted very crispy, but it was also very hard. But a Pilsener helped to chase it down the stomach.
Cuy
More tasty was the fridata (fried pork, see here for a list of food to try in Cuenca). Most restaurants on Don Bosco have a big roasted pig in front to attract customers.
Roast Pig
Also to attract customers is a mural on the side of a wall -- a "Miss Piggy" like drawing.
Miss Piggy
Cuenca - Panama Hat
You know that Panama Hats are made in Ecuador, right? If not, you should read Tom Miller's Panama Hat Trail, which I read before the trip.
There are two Panama Hat museums in Cuenca. One is Museo del Sombrero de Paja Toquilla in the old town, conveniently within walking distance from our hotel. I quite like this one (as far as museums go; I am not a big fan of museums anyway), with staff demonstrating the pressing of the hat crown, and it has a nice roof top cafe overlooking the river.
Hat Worker
Hat Worker
The other is the Homero Ortega "The Magic of the Hat" Museum outside the old town. Homero Ortega is one of the best known brands of Panama Hat, and this museum is also part of a working factory, so you can see the unfinished hats there waiting to be turned into finished products. Once finished, they are really exquisite pieces of work, as the exhibit shows.
Unfinished Panama Hats
Panama Hat
Cuenca - Pumapungo
Pumapungo is an Inca ruin, now an archaeological park ("Pumapungo" means "gateway of the puma"). Many interesting artifacts, such as the gold figurines shown below, have been unearthed here, which are in exhibit in the museum. The park itself is also a little oasis for birds. We liked it so much that we went there twice, the second time mainly to see the birds. Because our travel in Cuenca mainly focused on the cultural, I did not get many new birds (only 8 in 4 days, rather a shame), but most of these came from Pumapungo and surrounding areas.
Gold Figurines
Pumapungo
Pumapungo
Black Phoebe
Chiguanco Thrush
Sparkling Violetear
Fulvous Whistling-duck
Dusky Flycatcher
Dusky Flycatcher
Golden Grosbeak
Golden Grosbeak
Scrub Blackbird
Blue-and-yellow Tanager
Croaking Ground Dove
Vermilion Flycatcher
Cuenca - Along the river
The word "Cuenca" in Spanish means a basin made by a confluence of rivers, and Cuenca, Ecuador is at the confluences of four rivers (note the plural form of "confluences", the four rivers do not come together at a single point). Of these, Rio Tomebamba is the one that divides the historical old town from the new and is the most easily accessible one (coming from old town).
Rio Tomebamba
There are many murals on the walls along the river, some quite artistically done.
Mural
Mural
Mural
Mural
Cuenca - Turi
We saved our trip to Mirador de Turi for a sunny afternoon (weather had been very variable during our stay). This is a hill in the south side of the old town, with a splendid view of Cuenca itself and the surrounding mountains.
Turi Church
Turi Church
Cuenca
Cuenca
Cuenca - Festival
Unbeknownst to us, the Corpus Christi festival started at the time when we were in Cuenca. This was one of the pleasant surprises of travel, and we were thrown into a cultural event. On our last night in town (May 31), the celebration kicked into high gear: the vendors lines up around the main plaza, Parque Calderon, mostly selling sweets. At night, a fireworks show started at the New Church. It was a feast of the senses, and put a climactic ending to our stay in Cuenca.
Parque Calderon
Sweet Vendors
Fountain
Fireworks
Fireworks
Cuenca - food and drink (other than cuy)
When we travel, our main criteria for picking the destination, or our focus during the travel, is not the food. However, we enjoy good food (and myself, good drinks, especially beer).
In Cuenca, our best (and most expensive) meal was had at Tiesto's, a "modern Ecuadorian" restaurant. It is quite excellent, once you get over the price. From the start with an array of sauces and pickled vegetables, to the end with a beautifully decorated dessert, the food dazzles one's palate (and eyes).
On the other end of spectrum (in terms of price, not necessarily quality) is El Tunel (not shown here, but you can read my review), where you can get a lunch combo for $2.75 (with a juice and dessert!). In other places we had seen lunch combo for as little as $1. Eating in Cuenca is affordable, at least as of today.
Sauces
Shrimps
Dessert
A very unique beer that I had in Cuenca was Latitud Cero, actually brewed in Quito.
Latitud Cero
Cuenca - farewell
Finally even our leisurely time in Cuenca had to come to an end. On June 1, 2018 we left this beautiful and (relatively) quiet Andean town for the capital city, Quito.
We took an early flight, and from the plane, we had a glimpse of Chimborazo, Ecuador's highest mountain (6,263 m or 20,548 ft), which lays almost exactly halfway between Cuenca and Quito, a fitting transition in our journey.
Chimborazo
