Chillin' in Cuenca!

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Getting to Cuenca was a pretty long journey.... but I suppose everything is long here compared to tiny Ireland! First we got a bus back to Ambato, then a long bus journey to Cuenca. Cuenca is a beautiful colonial town in Ecuador with lots of little cobblestone streets and beautiful buildings. We stayed in a cool hostel called ElCafecito which is a funky cafe/restaurant with rooms out the back. We arrived to Cuenca about 8pm and the cafe was jammed packed full of people sipping beers, chatting and listening to cool music. We were pretty exhausted when we arrived so we had some food, a couple of beers and headed straight for bed!

The following day we wandered around Cuenca visiting Museo del Banco Central 'Pumapungo' which houses cool shrunken heads and other local pieces. We also walked around a park attached to the museum - the park has a small building in the middle which houses lots of birds - parrots, hawks, etc. After the museum we wandered along the Rio Tomebamba, stopped in a local flower market and tasted some hand-made sweets in a local sweet stall.... bliss..... Cuenca is really, really beautiful 😊

On our last night we went to a cool restaurant called Cafe Eucalyptus and had 'Ceviche' and chicken molle (a mexican dish made of a chocolate sauce... sounds weird but its gorgeous). After dinner we had a few drinks and watched some salsa dancing!! Have to say we're loving Ecuador. Everyone here is so relaxed!

Next stop the tiny fishing village of Puerto Lopez 😊

-- By Karen & Paul

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Photos

Welcome to Cuenca!
The colonial town of Cuenca

The best hot chocolate in the world!
Karen beleives this is the best hot chocolate in the world. Hot vanilla milk and two solid bars of the best chocolate, mix together for pure pleasure. Ever seen "When Harry met Sally" :)

What a headache!!
An actual real shrunken head!! It was about the size of a pool ball.

Bird watching
In the park behind the musem

Stairway to Heaven!
The woman at the top was jogging up and down these!! I was out of breath just looking at them!

Dream house
Wouldn't you just love to live in a house like this?

The flower market
Stalls with every type of flower you can imagine, and for almost nothing!

Comments

[tjp765]

Flowers of Cuenca
Only to say there (the flowers) are the best, I remember them from many yrs ago. And guess what, I get to go back with my daughter. Laura. We arrive Quito June 23. Oh, how cool TP