City of culture on route to Peru

  Cuenca, Ecuador
Sunday, December 3, 2006

Off to our next stop, Cuenca, known as the cultural capital of Ecuador and recommended as a good place to replace my digi camera. Other travellers had described the city as almost European in its style and the way a lot of the people dressed, making the travellers feel like a bunch of scruffy bums! I was looking forward to seeing a different kind of city to the capitals of San Jose and Quito and was happy to be heading into the mountains as a change of scenery for a couple of days.

The journey there was pretty straight forward, the transfer in the huge city of Guayaquil was different. By far the hugest bus terminal I had ever seen, it took us a good 10 minutes to walk between buses and luckily we had a porter on hand with a trolley to take the weight of our boardbags. I guess the size of the terminal is down to the majority of public transport being by bus, rail travel doesnt really exist. Jb does his usual sleeping trick for most of the trip and missed the picturesque climb through the Andean foothills. We are sat right at the front of the bus and for some reason the drivers mate assures me that the front curtains seperating the passengers from the drivers cabin have to be closed tight at all times. I am unhappy with having to crane my neck for the view and want to see forward. As usual in times of need I get my Spanish dictionary out and construct a sentence describing the level of my car sickness and the possible consequences if he doesnt open the curtain for my view forward. Jobs a good'un!  

Flat desert gives way to lush steep valleys with the road wrapping around them, after 20 minutes of climbing we enter a layer of thick cloud and I cant see a thing. My attention goes back to the third rate action movie with dubbed Spanish on the TV. We break free of the clouds and the view is of a much more desolate brown landscape, with large peaks (by my standards not by Andean) all around. We get close to the Caja National Park, jb wakes up, and the scenery becomes green again, lots of small lakes dotted around and fast flowing rivers cutting into the valleys. As we cruise through the park it could almost be the Lake District but on a grander scale. I spot a number of lonesome looking hostels and restaurants in remote locations with fantastic views. As I gaze up at the peaks around I feel an urge to scale them and explore the places wedged between and beyond. I make a silent vow to return to the Andes without the surf baggage and with a better grasp of Spanish. Perhaps my next trip will be to wander along them from the snowy expanses of Patagonia to the Carribean coasts of Columbia and Venezuela. Skiing, snowboarding, sandboarding, surfing, hanggliding, potholing....you name it, you can do it here. Who's with me?

As we enter the outskirts of Cuenca the view across the city skyline shows lots of church tops and other historical buildings. The hostel we arrive at is comfortable and very quiet, just a reception guy called Jerome from California who has made the long trip down on his motorbike, proudly displayed in the main hall. He is staying in Cuenca for a while working and saving to make his way back home, his Spanish is almost as basic as jbĦ's but his attempts are more amusing. He makes long hybrid sentences with spanish words he knows inserted here or there and when he struggles, english swear words begin to appear, its quite bewildering for whoever it is directed at, but he manages to get by.

We are starving on arrival and ask Jerome for a recommendation, he sends us to a place not far away which has a good reputation for traditional Columbian food. After dumping our stuff we find the place and sit down, the menu is extensive but my eyes quickly fix on the house specials. A fair bit more expensive than the rest but much larger, if the menu is correct I will have paid just over 2 quid for a fat meal! Food fiend Jb musnt have been feeling well, or that long sleep had sent him into hibernation mode because he passes on the feast and opts for one of the standard dishes. We sup our beers and then the food arrives, mine doesnt disapoint and I can see jb eyes light up with envy. My plate is huge and loaded sausages, tonnes of ground beef, bacon, fried eggs, a variety of beans, pork chop, chunks of avocado, rice and salad! It truly was the 3 meals of the day in one sitting. I am happy to say, I devoured every last bit and it was delicious! Brett - you would have been in heaven my friend!.....but probably would have asked for some bread rolls to finish it off nicely.

After a brief trip to the big shopping mall and negotiating a good price on a nice new Sony Cybershot we go for a few drinks in a local bar, after all we have no surf to get up for. We end up dancing to bad music with the locals, one young lad and his mum of all people were flinging each other round the small dancefloor, showing us how it is done. A small square near the bar features some of the worst live music I have ever heard, we didnt stay long enough to hear more than one song but it sounded like Kate Bushes worst hits in Spanish. We get an early night after some burgers from a street stall, yes somehow I am hungry again and jb entertains the locals present by covering his now substantial beard with mustard and ketchup whilst stuffing the burger down his neck and finishing the performance with a big greasy grin.

We wake early, hoping to get a good look around the city which is packed with museums and Ecuadors finest arts and crafts, unfortunatley it is Sunday and everything but the churches and food markets are closed. So we wander around the pretty city, into a few churches, buy some tasty fruit and we sort out our journey details across the border into Peru for the next morning. I test out my camera with the test exposures recommended in the manual -  internal and external church shots, bearded man in a camp pose by the river (shown below), central city plaza and aforementioned bearded mans nasty sore ridden feet.

Check out the photo album section on this entry for the rest ( there are plenty more to come in the following entries). Enjoy!

camp bearded man by river

We get an early night as we are up at 6 the next morning for our trip into Peru.