In Cuenca with a bad tempered backside
Trip Start
Jul 23, 2004
1
4
Trip End
Ongoing
Cuenca, Ecuador
Saturday, August 7, 2004
I planned to stay in Hostal Monestario, a six story building filled with doctors surgeries and gyno´s in the center of town, with a kitchen and balcony overlooking the beautiful churches, markets and buildings of pre-Boon architecture. It turned out the reception was on the 6th floor so I used my energy reserves (which are starting to hang nicely over my belt) to drag my bag and boards to the top floor where I collapsed in a heap of sweat and wheesed some crappy spanish to the English speaking man behind the desk to the amusement of some Euronerds. When your at such high altitudes, I failed to realise, you get ´puffed out´ pretty easily - as lonely planet says - even being physically fit (like me) offers no protection. Yeah, anyway, so I checked in and dragged my gear to the dorm on the ground floor.
The next day I spent wandering around the city checking out the sites common to most of these towns - a cathedral overlooking a town square, a fun marketplace and a river. Cuenca is the nicest town, one of the nicest I have seen with lots of friendly people, pokey bars and cafes. I ventured down to the grassy riverside to watch the women wash their laundry in the river and dry it on the banks, and was beckoned over by an indigenous fellow who was playing guitar and traditional pipes which were attached to his neck. He explained to me how he played music in public not as a commercial venture but to be at one with the sky, the river, the earth and the smokey busses (I think). He played me some Ecuadorian music which has a rhythm described as being like the trot of a three legged horse, and in return I showed him some Judy Blue ´classics´.
After a full day of roaming I returned to the hostel to watch the world go by leaning on a stone wall still warm from the afternoon sun. Then it happened - a turn of the tummy and a long hot hollow burp, followed shortly by a burning pain in my backside. In one word: buttpiss. Not that pleasant when you share a dorm of squeaky campbeds and have to make a deposit at the drop of a hat numerous times in the night. For two days I was stuck, venturing out once to buy some bananas from the meat market and check emails when I started getting contractions and had to dash back the four blocks before my waters broke. My last night I spent in a better hotel with cable TV to get a good nights sleep and pull myself back into shape with a safe diet of cookies and Gatorade.
I took a gamble the next morning and caught the bus to Loja (I was fine - back to blockage) for a night and then to the Peruvian border in the morning where I crossed without any hitches. I arrived in Mancora the same day which was good. Peru is quite different from Ecuador if first impressions count, a bit more feral and up in the north extremely dry. Surf is small but on the rise and I´ve scored a ride with some other surfers to Lobitos, which picks up lots more swell, in the morning. Hanging with some Austrian and Swiss girls I met on the bus so its a relief to speak some German for a change.
Cheeriho
