A victory over technophobia
Trip Start
Sep 13, 2004
1
7
82
Trip End
May 06, 2005
Cuenca,
Ecuador
Friday, September 24, 2004
Today was a day of wandering around Cuenca. It´s a town that is set up for tourists, which is good and bad. There is plenty of information about sights, but they also know how to charge. Thus I am setting out alone tomorrow to the Parque Nacional de Cajas to do a bit of hiking, rather than taking one of the guided tours. I am keeping my fingers crossed for another person to show interest in an organised trip to a local indigenous community though, as they won´t run it just for me. It would appear to be the low season.
In the spirit of value for money and a few hours well spent, I highly recommend the Museo del Banco Central. Whether through public spiritedness or for other ends, they have set up some excellent ethnographic, art and archaeological exhibits
1 A llama in the garden
. The section on the lives of the Shuar people of the Oriente, with the ceremonial shrunken heads, was particularly interesting, although exactly how the heads were shrunk remains unanswered. (I wonder if they can be unshrunk? Perhaps this technique could be the answer to my still bulging rucksack.) It really brings home again just how diverse the lives of the people in Ecuador and Peru are, from those who live an ostensibly western lifestyle to the poverty of the shanty towns, but also the very traditional way of life in rural and out of reach jungle areas. Outside the museum are the ruins of Pumapungo. A bit pants as ruins go, but the town had already been destroyed by the war between the Inca rulers Atahuallpa and Huascar. Their father Inca Huayna Capac, in a miscalculated move, had divided the Inca kingdom between the two of them (his sons) on his death. But the ruins are set in nice gardens (first llama sighting) with an aviary at the end, where I spent ages watching parrots and other pretty birds which shall remain unnamed, wildlife not being one of my strong points.
The day was rounded off with a wander along the river, a visit to a Panama hat factory and a huge snack at ´Cacao y Canela´ café (Borrero 597 y Juan Jaramillo), from which I am still trying to recover so that I can have my dinner. Hot chocolate with savoury and sweet bites turned out to be about 15 cakes, pastries and biscuits and a plate of sliced mozzarella. Seemed odd at first, but it´s not exactly mozzarella as I know it, and goes very well between sweet cakes and the hot chocolate.
