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Published: March 18th 2006
Cuenca - the cultural Mecca of Ecuador
After our amazing hike on the Inca trail to Machu Picchu (see
Discovering the lost Inca city), we caught the plane to Lima on Friday 21 January. Lima is supposed to have great surf beaches but considering that we live in Sydney there was little point in trying to verify this claim. Rather, being pretty exhausted from the four day hike, we just had a walk down to a viewpoint over the beach, where some surfers were enjoying the waves, to have an icecream. The night was spent in a Mexican restaurant before we went to bed early for our next day flight to Quito, the capital of Ecuador. That flight turned out to be a long one - flying with Copa Airlines, the plane took us first to Panama City far north of Ecuador, before returning south to Quito! For other travellers, it might be worthwhile to look for alternative airlines to minimise the duration of the Lima-Quito flight. In our case, other offers were lying at USD $5-600, and as such, we had no choice but to accept the inconvenience. Finally, after a 10-hour bus drive, we arrived in Cuenca Sunday night, with the girls meeting
the Cinterandes Foundation people early next morning.
Cuenca Arriving in Cuenca made me feel a bit like travelling back in time. The marks of Spanish colonisation are deep, with churches and cathedrals dominating the city view. Small plazas and parques exist on nearly every corner of the cobblestoned streets, with the most prominent one being Parque Calederon, from which we lived only a couple of blocks away. Whereas the Lonely Planet highly recommends the Hostal El Monasterio, we found this place perhaps the worst place we stayed on our entire trip, including Africa! The matrimonial rooms had worn-out beds, leaving us clinched together in the middle of its banana shape as if we were sharing a hammock. Of course, this can be cosy for a limited period of time but we became pretty tired of not getting any decent sleep. In addition, we were often kept awake by the 150 cm tall receptionist and his 150 kg heavy wife that were living in the next door room. The following is a true account of what happened to us at our first night in El Monasterio, when foil-thin walls enabled us to hear with incredible clarity the following variety of
entertaining sounds:
- SMS typing
- Drinking
- Chewing
- Body turning
- Bed creeching
- Heartbeats
- Breathing
- Heavy breathing
- Moaning
- Screaming
- Varieties of common catholic marital behaviour
- Lighter flick
- Deep breaths
- Cigarette falling into ashtray
- Yawning
- Snoring
When in addition the receptionist and wife failed to get up in the morning to prepare our breakfast as arranged the night before, as well as leaving the exit door padlocked (!), thus putting all the guests in danger of fire (cigarette in ashtray), missing air flight (another couple), coming late for the first day of work (Helene and Astrid), and suffocating from hysterical laughter (me), it seemed pretty clear that we needed to move to another hostel. Unfortunately, we had already paid until Friday for five more nights in this place that made The Shining with Jack Nicholson look more like something out of Sesame Street. Every morning we had to knock on the couple's bedroom door, wait for a couple of minutes, and then watch as the man came out only wearing his knickers to unlock the padlock so we could leave the building. We concluded that fire regulations have
a different meaning in Ecuador than in the rest of the world and that being available for your guests in not a strict requirement.
Learning Spanish While Helene and Astrid were busy working in the hospital, Aashild and myself took the opportunity to learn some Spanish. We enrolled in the Simon Bolivar school located centrally in Cuenca. The school offers both classes and one-to-one teaching but they highly recommend doing it one-to-one. For the next weeks, I spent four hours from 2-6pm every weekday in the school, improving my Spanish everyday - or that's what it felt like, anyway. The mornings I spent reading books, walking around in the city, visiting internet cafes, and doing my Spanish homework, of course. Socially, the school provided an opportunity to meet other travellers but also to learn about Ecuador and its culture and history through the sessions with the teacher. As most South Americans, the teachers were in general passionately interested in politics with the usual South American sympathies for the underdog and supporting socialist views. Contrary to the people in Africa, who have at least the same reason to despise the West, the South Americans are much more awake and aware
of the situation, with a critical view on the actions of the international leaders, particularly George W. Bush, of course. I found this very interesting and inspiring as it left me with a feeling that there is some hope for the world after all, because how can the world change if the oppressed are unaware they are being oppressed and who the oppresser is? Unfortunately, that was the impression I got from most African people. They showed this incredible faith in the white man, and many believed that the only ones to save them were in fact the biggest wolves themselves, namely Tony Blair and George W. Bush. South Americans displayed a much greater, and prouder, belief in themselves, in their own ideas, traditions, and culture, and in their independence.
Apart from the teaching sessions, the school also arranged social activities from 6-7pm everyday. These included pottery classes, traditional Ecuadorian instruments, salsa classes, and the mixing (and drinking!) of Ecuadorian cocktails! There were also nights where teachers and students went out to restaurants and to salsateques and clubs afterwards. Furthermore, the school arranged weekend trips to places such as Ingapirca, Vilcabamba, and the Cajas National Park, all of which
are described later in this text. Finally, I was very happy with the quality of my teacher (I hope you are reading this, Chela!), and for prospective travellers I highly recommend the school, as it an excellent way to spend some weeks in a wonderful city, learn Spanish and meet interesting personalites, absorb culture, and meet fellow travellers. The Simon Bolivar website can be found
here.
Ingapirca Ingapirca lies 50 km north of Cuenca and is Ecuador's only major Inca site. We went there on a Saturday day trip arranged by the Spanish school although it is quite possible to get their on your own as well by public transport. We had a good guide who walked us through the site, explaining how it had existed mostly for ceremonial purposes, including worship and astronomy. Compared to the amazing Machu Picchu, the site was a little disappointing. Only one house was left intact, while for the most, the site consisted of one-rock tall remains of house walls. Over the years, as with
all known Inca sites in South America apart from Machu Picchu (luckily the lost city remained lost until early 1900s, thus leaving it untouched), people or Spaniards tore
Balcony view
This is the actual view from our balcony in Hostal Milan.down Inca buildings in order to build new buildings with the very same perfectly cut-out stones from the old Inca houses. However, the guide offered us lots of interesting facts about Incapirca, and also took us on a short walk down a valley nearby where a giant Inca face was displayed on a mountain side, as if carved out by the Incas. If the Incas really did make the face, or maybe just "polished" it a bit, is still unknown. After this walk, we had a nice lunch
ecuadoriano tipico style, and there was also an opportunity to visit a craft shop. Overall, the trip offered a very worthwhile way of spending a lazy Saturday.
Vilcabamba Vilcabamba is a lovely and quiet village 6 hours drive south of Cuenca, an hour south of Loja. It is considered a hidden pearl among the Ecuadorians, who like to go there on vacation, because most international tourists haven't heard about it. Situated in the bottom of a valley,surrounded by mountains, it has a near-constant climate all year round that many believe is the reason it is called 'the valley of longevity' - inhabitants are supposed to live to be a hundred years
Another balcony view
This is the actual view from our balcony in Hostal Milan. old or more. While Aashild was on her solo trip up north to Baños, Astrid, Helene, and myself went to Vilcabamba on a two-night trip from a Saturday till a Monday. We stayed in the well-renowned
Hostal Izchayluma, which features a great lagoon situated in a lovely, flowery garden, wonderful bungalows with your own balcony and hammock, pool and pingpong, bar, and a nice restaurant. Run by two German brothers, the cuisine includes not only the usual international and Ecuadorian dishes, but also some German specialties. While we were there it was raining almost continuously, thus we didn't go on any of the many excellent day hikes in the area, one of which includes a waterfall and lake were one can go swimming. However, we still enjoyed our stay very much, and spent the two days reading books and drinking wine in the hammocks, or having coffee in the village. Vilcabamba is clearly a must for visitors to Ecuador that want a few days of relaxation. As a matter of fact, many people told us how they ended up staying many more days than originally planned.
Cajas National Park Parque Nacional Cajas is situated only 30 km west of Cuenca.
It has an abundance of large and small lakes that are excellent for trout fishing. Most, if not all, of the daily-fresh trout being sold in Cuenca comes from Cajas. Nowhere else that I am aware of can you eat first class trout for ridiculously cheap prices, in particular, I fell for the Ecuadorian and Chilean dish
ceviche, which is raw or semi-raw trout or prawns marinated in a spicy lemon-based sauce, truly something for the sushi lovers out there. The last weekend before we left Ecuador, Astrid, Helene, and I went on a daytrip to Cajas with some other fellow students from the Spanish school. The school's minibus took us to a picturesque lake that we walked around in about an hour. Later, we drove to a bigger lake, which we also walked around. The park offered many nice photo opportunities, and if we had been a little less lazy, we should have brought fishing equipment, hired a cabin, and stayed for a few days. Naturally, this was hard to achieve in the company of girls - I might have to return on my own at some stage!
The end of a long journey After about four weeks
in Ecuador we had to return to Sydney for our studies. After a quick stop-over in Los Angeles, where we did the compulsory visit to Hollywood and Walk Of Fame, we landed in Sydney on Monday 20 February 2006. Nearly 4 months had passed since we left Sydney - Helene and Astrid in October, I in November. Our little big world trip was an amazing journey, with just about the perfect duration. Travelling for six months or even a full year would have been too much - one reaches a threshold where it takes quite a lot to be stunned. A beach is a beach, a city is a city - however, only Machu Picchu is Machu Picchu, and I think this place was the definite high light of our trip.
For those of you who have followed this blog develop since its beginning, I can now inform you that the entry
The world's deepest canyons now contains the photo of the world's biggest bird, the condor, that I promised I would put up. Furthermore, I intend to complete two more journal entries from perhaps our two best visits in Africa: The island of Zanzibar and our safari in the national parks
Iglesia de Santo Domingo
The Santo Domingo church. of Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. For newcomers, you can read about all our adventures since we arrived in Malawi last year until now
here. And for those of you who hate to get the email notification: You can unsubscribe by clicking the corresponding link at the bottom of your email. But have you read this far, you don't want to do that. Do you?!
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