We arrived in Cuenca after a night bus and made our way to the hostel, after realising I’d booked a different one that what we’d thought. We freshened up a bit and then I realised that we must’ve been robbed on the bus, because my cameras, kindle, headtorch, swimming goggles (?!) as well as Chris’s fleece had been taken from inside my bag. We’d heard about theft on buses in Ecuador, so it wasn’t the most shocking, but always strange to think someone was rifling through your bag just over your head as you slept!
This did however lead to some fun quests in Cuenca: searching for a fleece for Chris and a kindle for me, as well as some little padlocks to keep our bags zipped together in future. We were often led from one shop to another, with shopkeepers saying so and so on the corner will have it, only to be led on again… but all quests were eventually successful!
Weather:
Similar to everywhere else in Ecuador, not too cold but pretty rainy!
Where we stayed:
Despite booking a different hostel to the one we had agreed on (oops), it turned out well! Conveniently opposite some museums and only a short walk into town. There was plenty of space to relax and also a decent kitchen to cook in.
Best thing we ate:
In our three days in Cuenca, we became regulars at the Ñucallacta Café for breakfast. They had great GF labelling (win) and we tried a range of traditional breakfasts between us. It was really tasty and filling and the main man was very friendly, indulging us in speaking Spanish even though I overheard him speaking perfect English on the last day.
Honorary mention to a delicious Mexican restaurant we ate in on our first night – great food and a very pretty roof terrace!
Coolest thing we did:
There was no one thing in Cuenca – we had a great time walking around the city, visiting a few museums and ascending the church tower.
The town:
On the first day – post night bus, post thievery – we pushed ourselves and dove straight into a walking tour. The group was us and a Canadian couple and we were led by a funny Law student around the city. We learnt how Cuencans traditionally love Europe, are quite conservative, and are proud of their very pretty city. We saw traditional food markets and the famous flower market where they sell Pitimas water – a bright red drink that will take away all your troubles.
The main square, Plaza Calderon, was beautiful and had both the original small old cathedral and the newer, grand one. The red marble and blue domes make it different to most churches we’ve seen and climbing up the tower wasn’t too scary – although we also learned the cathedral is technically incomplete due to structural unsoundness and large cracks appearing….
The museums:
On our museum day, we just nipped over the road. We were aiming for the Pumapungo museum, but first were drawn into the money museum by an enthusiastic security guard. I took some photos of the old sucres for Dad and then the best bit was obviously the make your own bank note station. We weren’t great at following the instructions, however, so not our best work.
The Pumapungo museum next door had a range of historic and modern Ecuadorean art, and I could mostly follow along the information until all the descriptions that were first in Spanish and English became Spanish and Portuguese – that got a bit trickier.
Then, last but not least, the hat museum! Chris was keen to see how the Panama hat is made – you might think that’s an activity to do in Panama, but you’d be wrong because they’re actually from Ecuador. We saw weaving and hat presses and to be honest there’s not a huge amount more to it, but it was a fun little museum with, you guessed it, a huge hat shop.
Bonus:
Discovering just about every shop in Cuenca that looked like it might sell a fleece, a kindle, or padlocks. A great way to learn some new Spanish vocab too!
Next up we cross the border into Peru – thank you Ecuador!
Besos,
Florence and Chris
