Cuenca: Most beautiful city of Ecuador

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I think so !

Yesterday I caught a bus leaving Riobamba at 19.30, heading to Cuenca with arrival time at 1.30am.
Little bit delayed (just 15min), I arrived in Cuenca pretty devastated. THe bike tour of yesterday was quite sporty, and no chance to sleep in the bus since the driver had the good idea to play music all trip long, pretty loud.
Anyway, I arrived in Cuenca safe and want to the Hotel MILAN. Very nice one, expensive tough.

So this morning I slept very late, 9.30 !! The famous "grasse matinée" in South America...
But this allows me to go all around the city.
1st, tourist office. The best one I ve done in Ecuador. Very helpful, she arranged my trip to Peru the day after (I mean she gave me ALL infos).
2nd, museums ! Yeah, as I said I try to keep a good balance between fun and culture. After several days of fun, now it is time for culture ! I started with the "museo de arte moderno". Very very nice. The building is great, the paintings very nice and the staff very cool. Entrance fee is up to you, as it is donation-based. Please tip well, because the house needs further renovations. After that I went through the city to reach the "museo del banco central". Free entrance too, but not very nice museum The building is simply ugly, the collection is quite poor, and the condition is bad (lights broken, info-text missing, ...). There is an ethnologic part on the various ecuadorian cultures. In case you have done the museum of Mitad del Mundo close to Quito (my case), then this one does not bring a lot.
What is fabulous is the anount of churches in the city: San Francisco, Santo Domingo, Santo Ceñaculo, San Sebastian, San Alfonso, Catedral Nueva and Vieja (around the beautiful parque Calderon). Plus a walk along the avenida 3 de dicembre, on the river Rio Tomebamba, and plaza de las flores, the ruinas of Pumapungo (kind of a joke !!) and the Condamine.
What I like the most is the panama hat shop. For your informatiom, this hat is not from Panama. So calling it a Panama is misleading because it is from Montecristi (or Montechristi) in Ecuador !! Unfair, isn´t it ?

Tonight I will go to a recital and then to the CAfé Eucalyptus,apparently a good place to meet some travellers. And tonight is ladies night, so an other good reason to go...


Tomorrow I will go to Ingapirca, an inca site, and then leaving to Peru. But this is another story so keep reading to know more !!

That´s all folks !

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