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Published: September 27th 2007
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I’m really using some licence here, quoting yet again from that famed authority Lonely Planet, but they certainly got it right this time. We basically have some time to kill prior to our Galapagos cruise, and Cuenca was a great place to just chill out for 5 days. It is a big enough city (400,000 pax, #3 in Ecuador) that you are not running into the same people all the time as you stroll around, but it doesn’t have the hustle and bustle traditionally associated with big cities.
More importantly, in the central part of the city where we stayed, it has narrow cobblestone streets, white-washed red tile buildings, and many plazas, generally backed by old domed churches. Furthermore, it lies on the banks of a very attractive river, where women still wash their clothes by hand and leave them out to dry in the sun. It is still very much geared for the tourist, with plenty of good options for accommodation and meals, as well as art galleries, museums, bars and cafes.
One thing that is getting a bit tiring here, especially with taxis, is their bad driving habits and habitual use of the horn. While I
should be used to it, given my time in Asia (where the car has only two controls - the accelerator and the horn), at least there it was generally just used to warn cyclists and pedestrians that you are approaching. Here, the taxi drivers in particular drive like madmen through the narrow streets, accelerating and braking furiously, and should a car in front even hesitate, or, crime of all crimes, actually give way to another, there will be a cacophony of horns from the 10 cars behind telling him to move on. Similarly, every car here queues across intersections (one of my pet hates) and yet when blocked by a car doing similar in the cross direction, drivers will just sit on their horn for the few minutes it takes to clear it. I guess that’s just the latino temperament, but it doesn’t make it fun to be a passenger!
We continue to eat well (now I know that is worrying a lot of you!) with our generally being able to get a pretty good main course at a clean restaurant for around USD6-7. Sometimes what comes out is not quite as expected, but our Spanish is getting better,
and the acquisition of a dictionary has helped no end. You can get a pint of beer here for around USD1.50 and a spirit for USD3, which is pretty competitive too.
Most of our time was spent wandering around Cuenca, but we did take one organised trip into a couple of surrounding towns. As part of this, we visited a display of weaving, but having seen these a couple of times before, it doesn’t have the same mystique now. Probably the most interesting was a visit to an orchid farm (okay guys, I’m getting soft - first a rose farm and now an orchid farm!), where we were amazed at the variety of shapes and colours that they have been able to produce, and again like the roses, it was interesting to see how these flower farms develop their product from scratch and how they operate on such a large scale.
Following that, we went to a large regional market, which is purely produce and is there for the locals, not the tourist. Its always fascinating wandering through any markets checking out the locals, but of particular interest in this one was the covered meat market, in which
there was pork for sale from about 20 bbq’d full pigs all in a row. I tried to get this perspective in a photo, but it really doesn’t show the full extent. If pork was not your thing, there were always the options of bbq chicken or guinea pig!
So now it is on to Guayaquil, from where we take off for the Galapagos. We have heard that it is not the most attractive tourist destination, so shall probably take off to the Pacific coast for a couple of days. We have just heard that the majority of passengers on out cruise are Brits. I do hope England beats Tonga in the RWC this weekend, or it may be a long week for some of them!
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Lorna Cooch
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Drooling with envy
Well, have I had some fun trying to find your blog address but finally worked out how to read and comment on your journey. OK Joan, how did you manage to get through the 4 hour bus ride. I hope it didn't involve any unladylike comments as occasionally heard in softball games. Your trip looks so amazing to me and as I read each entry I am more determined to get there one day soon. I look forward to the next instalment and hope you two are soaking up every minute. Lorna