Tag: cuenca

Cuenca – The Other Ecuadorean Colonial City

After Tena it was time to head back into the the Andes to the colonial town of Cuenca. The locals claim it has the charm of Quito but cleaner with less traffic and better weather and honestly I’m inclined to agree with them. To get there from Tena was a bit of an affair as there are no direct busses to Cuenca from Tena, you have to connect somewhere. As we wanted to spend the night at the layover spot we choose to return to Baños over Ambato as it sounded like the more attractive option and we knew a good place to stay right next to the bus station and you can get direct busses from either town. The ticket from Tena was $5 pp this time and then it was another $8 for the direct bus from Baños. There were several busses from Baños to Cuenca so it would be possible to do it in one day but you’re looking at anywhere from 9 to 12 hours on busses (usually without a bathroom, those Vietnamese busses seem so charming now…). Both bus rides offer stunning scenery but the on from Baños to Cuenca was particularly so. That way if you’re not into cheesy Mexican or Bollywood productions you have something to look at (I myself find them entertaining to make fun of).

It’s very possible to find a decent private room for just over $20 but Victoria decided this was the time to splurge. We ended up at the Siena Hotel for exactly $40 including taxes. For that we got what I would class it as a four star hotel right in the heart of the old town. A taxi from the bus station costs anywhere from $1.50 to $2 and traffic can be heavy at times.

The best thing to do in Cuenca is really to just wander around the old town. There are beautiful historic buildings everywhere and the central square is stunning. The Riverwalk is also very nice and borders the old town and if you stay on the old town side you don’t have to breath any exhaust(not much anyways…).

There are also a number of museums to visit, we choose the Museo del Banco Central which is exactly what it sounds like The Central Bank of Ecuador Museum. There was of course an exhibit on the history of Ecuadorian money from prehistoric times up till they moved to the dollar. In addition to this they also display modern art and archeological findings. Out back was the best part though, there are the huge ruins of an old Incan City along with beautiful gardens and a menagerie. My personal favorite though as a general cheap skate was that it was all entirely free. After coming from South East Asia where they charge you for pretty much every attraction it’s been great that here in Ecuador most sights are either free or very cheap.

An interesting fact that most people won’t be aware of is that the “Panama hat” was actually an Ecuadorian invention with Cuenca as the heart of the production. The “Panama hat” got it’s name because FDR was seen wearing one while viewing the Panama canal and they became fashionable after that. Now if this was Asia they would have been selling them on every corner but that wasn’t the case, they were only sold in fancy stores meant for tourists as far as I could tell. We ended up both getting hats for around $50 and they were even able to roll them up and put them in a box for easy transit. $50 is a fortune here but they are high quality and hand made, although I’m sure with further research they could be found cheaper.

One last thing anyone should do while in Cuenca is to check out the Mercado Municipal for lunch. There are all kinds of delicious food and drinks severed here extremely cheaply. We had to try some of the whole roasted pig of course and it was just as delicious as it sounds. A portion big enough for two can be had for $3 to $4. We also tried a bowl of chicken noodle soup for the extravagant cost of $0.75. To finish it all off we had a mora(blackberry) shake for a $1. It was a solid 30 Oz and I’m sure would have cost $7 in the States.

Victoria and I both agreed that Cuenca was one of the few towns we’ve visited that would could see spending an extended amount of time in. The architecture is beautiful, the old town is great for wandering around, the food was good, the weather fair, and most important of all…the hotel and mobile internet we’re both great. Plus you could drink the tap water here, a first for me outside the country. After a visiting the two big Andean towns of Quito and Cuenca our next stop was going to be the small town of Vilcabamba with a population of only 4800 but a popular spot with both expats and tourists for it’s stunning mountain scenary.

Our Next Adventure – Ecuador!

So Victoria officially has finished another assignment and you all know what that means, it’s time to hit the road again. We originally had planned to outfit my Montero as an “expedition vehicle”  with a roof top tent and refrigerator and all that and then drive it across the US and then all the way down Baja again. Only this time we were going to leave it there and fly back to the fifth wheel and then after her next assignment we’d fly down, pick it up, and head into mainland Mexico via the ferry and continue south. Then we’d rinse and repeat down through Central America and then maybe put it on a boat and tour South America too. Unfortunately these grandiose plans were interrupted when shortly after we decided all this Hurricane Matthew hit the east coast and dropped a tree on my Montero I had been storing at my parents home in Savannah, Ga.

We briefly considered buying another truck and a cheap camper as a replacement but ultimately decided we didn’t feel like dealing with all that(Maybe next time?). So instead we just looked to Kayak.com to see where we could fly cheaply. We’d been to Asia recently so Victoria scrapped Indonesia, we considered Spain and Greece but it’s winter there too (and we’re tired of the cold already), and then we saw Ecuador. It’s the same time zone as the east coast so that’s convenient, they speak spanish and so do I now, it’s on the equator so it’s always warm(Ecuador means equator in spanish), it seemed perfect .

Most people I’ve told don’t seem to know where Ecuador even is. It is a small country in South America on the Pacific coast in between Colombia and Peru. For a small country it has a huge variety in landscapes from the colonial towns of Quito(the second highest capital in the world) and Cuenca, to the Andes mountains, the Amazon rainforest, the Pacific coast, cloud forests, and the world famous Galapagos Islands(we won’t be visiting them as it would cost as much as the rest of the trip combined!).

We’ll be traveling for a little over five weeks and that should give us enough time to view a good part of the country. We’ll be backpacking as usual and getting around mostly by bus. As usual we’ve made zero reservations other than we’ll be flying into Quito on the 6th of January and back out on the 14th of February. We will be making a reservations at some point for our first night in Quito but other than that we’ll be winging it. We have a general plan to hit spend a few nights in Quito, head down into the Amazon, travel down the spine of the Andes, cut over to the coast and work our way back up, and then back to Quito and home. Something like below.

First we’re headed home for the holidays for two weeks. I had to get something up as we were interviewed by a friend of mine for a podcast called “Breaking The Chains”(I’ll post a link when it goes live) about people who live a bit outside the norms(us?) and I didn’t want any new visitors to think we’re too morbid with the first post being about the tragedy of Pol Pot’s rule in Cambodia. Stay tuned, I might even get around to posting about Koh Rong, the last place we went in Cambodia and an absolutely stunning island.