Thursday I decided to skip the Giron Waterfall and go on a city tour instead. The waterfall was tempting but with all my experiences with expecting great things and seeing exactly what I could see in the PNW, and given that it would've been an all-day adventure including a 5 hour bus ride, and knowing that Iguazu Falls will blow every waterfall I have seen out of the water amyway (no pun intended), I decided to find out more about my future place of residence instead. (Haha, just kidding. I think.)
The Cuenca city tour started with a quick stop at the Puente Roto, a bridge that was partially washed away by a flood years ago and never replaced.
It's a neat photo spot and it also houses art fairs on weekends and holidays (there was one happening Monday when I arrived). Right up the street we stopped behind Museo Manuel Augustin Landivar to see the Ruinas de Todos Santos - layered ruins from the Canari, Inca and Spanish inhabitants.
upper left: Incan... upper right: Canari... lower: SpanishHere I learned that the Incans were perfectionists and that's why they used squared blocks to build... Perhaps I was Incan in a former life?
Next we went up to Mirador de Turi which offered great panoramic views of the city. This was one of the highlights of the tour despite the slightly overcast day.
On the way down we stopped at the gallery of Eduardo Vega, "Ecuador's most important ceramic artist." Beautiful pieces, and some nice pieces by his son (who was hanging out in the gallery) too.
Homero Ortega & Hijos' panama hat factory was next. This was purely for the tourists and a reason I almost didn't bother with the city tour. It was interesting to see how the hats were made (it's quite a process and all done by hand - one hat can take at minimum a few weeks and as long as six months, depending on quality) but more interesting to see the photos of famous poeople who love these hats (J Lo, Brad Pitt, many others sporting the crisp white straw garros). P.S., in case you missed the Montechristi post, Panama hats are from Ecuador. And no, I didn't buy you one in Cuenca either.
I also didn't buy me one
After the hat factory we walked through historic downtown touring and discussing the history of the gorgeous churches. The "new cathedral," Catedral de la Immaculate Concepcion, is unfinished - during construction they placed a statue on top and it cracked the building so they were unable to finish the bell towers. (Here churches are considered "new" if they were built in the 1800s.)
oops
From the street you can look west to the Plaza de San Sebastian and east to the Church of San Blas to see the original boundaries of the city:
west
east
I also got to ask about a few interesting sites downtown. Turns out this church is built on Incan ruins and they preserved a handful of stones from the original building.
And I'd noticed these in the corners between buildings along the streets...
This one is in the corner where a church sits. It was put there to prevent drunk people from peeing in the corner. I mean, who would pee on a cross? It sounded like it was an effective tactic.
At the end of the tour we stopped in at the indoor market, a Ferry Plaza produce lover's dream especially given the affordability of the products. Upstairs was a food court and natural remedies area. Cuenca was the first place I saw such a high concentration of herbal remedy shops and product availability and I assume that's because of the rich history of their uses in that area. We also saw a woman "cleansing" a baby by waving some herbs around the child and chanting - on weekends women with cranky and/or sick babies wait hours in line to have this cleansing done. Allegedly it gets rid of the bad juju and the babies get better or show mood improvement. (Note to self: find anti-cranky shaman in Portland.)
When the tour was done I had a PB&J and walked over to the city mausoleum and cemetery. I don't think it was the same one I saw from the road coming in, but it was impressive. The mausoleum portion was a few city blocks long and wide.
Each section was painted a different pastel color and the memorials were quite colorful as well.
The gardens among the graves were beautiful too. It was by far the most cheerful - yet still somber and serene - place o'the dead I have ever visited.
That evening the sisters at the hostel threw a party for a guy leaving that night who had been there for about 6 weeks. This was tradicion (oops I mean tradition) at the hostel and a good representation of the local friendliness of the city. I had a few experiences with locals where they just wanted to chat (and probably practice their English - though I would've rather practiced my Spanish!) including the owner of the soy bakery... We talked for about 20 minutes.
The final day I spent the morning at Museo Pumapungo. Upstairs was an amazing life sized diorama exhibit of each of the many Ecuadoruan cultures, ending with a mini-tour of life in the jungle complete with tzantza (shrunken heads). Neat. Included in the tour was a visit to the ruins of an old Incan city, Tomebamba.
where they put the Incan bodies
In addition to ruins there was a beautiful garden...
... and parrots. I couldn't figure out the purpose of the bird sanctuary among the ruins but since I probably won't get to the jungle (this time anyway!), I wasn't really complaining. Maybe that *was* the purpose of putting it there?
Finally, off to the airport two hours early as suggested, where I was the only passenger in the waiting area for about an hour...
{crickets}
... where I headed to Lima to meet Viki for phase #? of this aventura! Onward and upward again, and literally, again.
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