The Jewel of the South

This is the name given to Cuenca, the country's third largest city (with only 500 K or so residents!) located several hours from the border with Peru. It is a city filled with colonial architecture, with stone-paved streets, and with a river runner through its center. It is, in short, beautiful.

I took a 10 hour bus ride from Quito to Cuenca two Sundays ago so I could see the Andean highlands through the window. I'm glad I did, but 10 hours is a long time. The best part was trying to communicate with an old man who did not speak Spanish but rather the indigenous language of the country's largest native group - Quechua.

When I arrived at night I found the city center packed with people dancing, waving Ecuadorian flags, and setting off fireworks. The country's new Constitution had passed with 65% of the vote, and it had recieved over 80% support in the city.


The next morning I began exploring - visiting churches, small museums, the flower market, and just wandering around the city. While I like Quito very much, there was something about this city that felt really good to me. Perhaps it was the slighter slower pace, or the way people sing their words, or the fact that there is only one major plaza and a few key streets and all are pretty safe, even at night. Whatever it was, I felt at home there.

It helped that I made some good friends over my five days, including Gary from Scotland and a whole bunch of European and Ecuadorians who worked at a non-profit preventing domestic violence. They were really good people, and took me out to a tiny, packed salsa-club on my last night. I'm not much of a dancer, but it was good times.

My greatest adventure was getting lost with Gary in Cajas National Forest. I mean, we were never really truly LOST lost, but it was getting dark and starting to rain and the trail was virtually impossible to see even during day because of the clouds everywhere around us...luckily, we made the right call to leave the trail and cut across some hills to reach the highway. Not going to lie though, there were some moments of fear.

Anyway, it was a great trip, and Cuenca is a city I know I will visit again. OH, and by the way, I went to a museum one afternoon that had more of those shrunken heads!! (Tsantsa) So everybody would have to believe me, I even took pictures of the signs in English explaing the ritual...enjoy!