Cuenca was really nice, so we ended up staying here for 3 days. I’m still a little fuzzy on what happened when but here’s the gist of it.
Our hostal there was great… Hostal Milan. Nice and centrally located, plus the free breakfast was delicious. The owner had also recently installed a home theater projection system in the upstairs cafe and he showed a movie on weekend nights. This place was great. The only problem was the excessive street noise due to the buses in Cuenca which apparently have no mufflers.
The churches in Cuenca are gigantic (see photos) and it’s easy to see how the Spanish were able to convert people to Christianity through pure fear and intimidation. It’s amazing to me that so many buildings there are older than the Unites States. Most of the central downtown area had beautiful old colonial buildings with balconies and intricate woodwork. Very very nice.
We went to some great museums in Cuenca… especially the Museo de las Culturas Aborigenes. It contained a huge private collection of artifacts from ancient cultures. Much more impressive than the (larger) Museo del Banco Central.
The restaurants here were hit-and-miss. For the most part, the ones that my guide recommended weren’t so great… and the ones we found on our own were amazing. We ate lunch at a Colombian place called “Moliendo”. It was so yummy. I’m actually craving it right now. And another place we found was “El Maiz” which seemed to be in a renovated old house, was very nice and somewhat upscale feeling, but we ate tons of food and drinks for only $15 which was a steal.
I think it was our second day here that we tried to go to the Cajas National Park. The guide book said it “couldn’t be easier” to catch a bus on the route to Guayaquil and have them drop you off at the park entrance. However we asked around the terminal for over an hour and none of the buses would take us there. So we gave up and went back to town and hit up the local market that was in full swing. Later on, in Puerto Lopez, we ran into some Dutch girls who said they had the same problem and just got lucky when they finally found a bus to take them to the park. This is typical of Ecuador… you can’t rely on anything here.
On our way from Cuenca to Puerto Lopez, we stopped at Inga Pirca…
Pictures…
A night scene from the top of the hill
My favorite painting at the modern art museum
The bathroom at the “Museum of Extreme Art” (which, we think, was really a night club)
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