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Published: March 27th 2011
A view over the city
Cuenca is in a valley within the Andes, so there are mountains like this all around the city. So far today and all of yesterday I have spent time trying to get to know Cuenca. I have taken several pictures and hope that they give you all a better idea of where I am/ what I am dealing with.
Anyway, this post will start off with with a story about the bathroom in my hostal. So, in my hostal there is a shared bathroom. When I sit on the toilet my knees almost touch the wall in front of me. I don't know how someone tall could even manage to sit down. As for the shower I have two words, "not fun." There are two different knobs in the shower, one is red and one is silver. Right away I get excited becuase the two knobs means that there is most likely hot and cold water. Yay! Well, this is actually true. There is hot and cold, but those are also the only two options. It is either burning hot, or freezing cold. I have taken two showers here so far, and they were both pretty "exciting", it certainly wakes me up. 😊 Oh, and today I accidently dropped my shampoo bottle into the garbage in the
Building
Architecture of Cuenca bathroom. To most people in the US, this would not seem to be a big deal, but here in Ecuador the garbage can is where you put your TP after you have gone to the bathroom. Woops.
Yesterday I mainly walked around the city center right around my hostal. It is so beautiful. All of the streets are made of cobble stone and mostly all of the buildings are old colonial style. I added many pictures so you could see what I am talking about. Walking around downtown Cuenca means walking around a lot of people and a lot of people selling things. The coolest thing I have seen so far is the way that they sell ice cream. They just stack a mound of different flavors on a board. Then they walk around with this board on their heads. Then when someone wants some, they just scoop it and put it on a cone. Ice cream on the go, best idea ever, I definitely belong here. ha ha The other peculiar thing that is sold commonly on the streets of Cuenca is lottery tickets. Something that I noticed about the city is that people are always cleaning it.
People are always sweeping, painting, or washing something off. There is still a little bit of litter here and there, but overall they really try to take care of their city.
As for today, I walked to the river. It is really pretty and the water is actually clear. There is a really nice boardwalk where a lot of people roller blade and just walk. I also found the purple trees that my mom told me about. The trees themselves are not purple, but about half of the leaves on the tree are purple. They are really pretty. Then on my way back from the river I looked for a restaurant to stop and eat. I saw this really cute looking place called the Kookamonga Cafe. I walked in and I was greated with, "Hello, how are you?", I cannot even explain how shocked I was. I have not had anyone speak fluent English to me since I arrived. Then I noticed that all of the people in the restaurant were speaking English to each other. It was like I walked into a white person haven. I am not trying to be rude, I was just not expecting it.
Catedral Nueva de Cuenca
This is the main attraction in downtown Cuenca. It is really beautiful and there is so much detail. This is the front of the cathedral. In addition, the waitress was from Boston and she had also taught at the school that I am about to teach at. She was very nice and she told me to stop by if I ever needed help with anything. By the way, I had the best BLT with avacado. They actually had wheat bread!
Tomorrow I will be going to look for my apartment and I will also be meeting another teacher from my school. I will take pictures and fill you guys in. Buenas dias!
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Paul V
non-member comment
great photos!
Amanda This city looks so interesting! How do you find the people to be for the most part? Are they friendly, indifferent or are they scary? Seems by the way they are always keeping things clean and my looking at these photos it seems like they might all be very good and respectful people. I am hoping you feel safe there. Duly noted on the trash can thing, that is the way it is in Korea as well. I think that is disgusting and I have never followed that practice in my own house, but all the shoe factories do so I am fully aware of that mess... Nasty!!! Wait until it gets really hot, then it is even worse!! Take care!! Cheers Paul