Laying Low in Cuenca



November 4-11, Cuenca

As the title suggests, I have been laying low and avoiding the authorities in Cuenca this past week and staying at the La Casa Cuencana Hostal. The proprietress, Marta, is either addicted to "happy pills" or just exuberantly friendly; it's hard to tell but I appreciate her toothy grin every time she sees me.

I had to share a room the first night here for $12 with Gareth, an American with family from La Porte, Indiana, just like me! "It's a small world after all" (TM Annoying Walt Disney Theme Park Ride). Gareth was rather gorgeous though and slept bare-chested so...no err complaints here! But the street noise?!!? Ay carumba!!! It was the day after Cuenca's Independence Day so everyone was still in celebratory mode and they carried on carousing till after 4 AM! It's time to face the fact that I'm a light sleeper and should seriously invest in a pair of ear plugs. Stat!

On Saturday, I explored the old town and was pleased as punch to stumble upon a parade on the main square. It was mostly people from various unions and artisans wearing varying degrees of fancy dress, smiling and waving to the onlookers. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it.

On Sunday, I had planned to visit a major Inca ruin some 2 hours away by bus, but the weather upon waking seemed iffy so I opted out and decided to have a lazy day wandering along the Rio Tomebamba where there were many artisans selling their wares. I even buckled and purchased a pair of leather sandals for the budget-blowing price of $40!

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention that I had breakfast and shared my table with an American plastic surgeon named Bob who invited me to the Inca Bar, which is a gringo hangout overlooking the river at 1 PM in order to drink and watch some football. Why the heck not? Can't say I am much of a football fan as I prefer basketball and watching Rafael Nadal run around court in ass-enhancing shorts but...alrighty!


I ended up hanging out at the bar for at least 3 hours and Bob kept buying me beers till I was well past the point of tipsy and coming up close to the land of the overly inebriated. I had an encouraging political talk with a lovely couple from Pittsburgh and we all took turns mocking different Tea Party candidates. Is Herbert Cain truly the Republican flavor of the month?!? Excuse me while I find a bucket and...

Later Bob treated me to sobriety-loving coffee followed by a light meal at some decent hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Oh and I forgot to mention that I met 2 vivacious Canadians from northern British Columbia. They were a bit over the top, i.e. LOUD, so I mistakenly thought they were Americans at first. Hee hee.

Monday, again, I planned to visit the Inca ruins but when I woke up it was raining and it continued doing so relentlessly ALL...DAY...LONG! So, I played way too many games of Angry Birds and finished reading a mystery novel.

On Tuesday, the weather was mixed - partly sunny in the AM with ominous clouds and steady rain arriving in the mid-afternoon. The only thing of note to happen was me deciding on a whim to get a haircut at a Colombian salon for $7 plus tip. The owner was...you'll never guess...a rather flamboyant homosexual so I guess there are some professions worldwide where the stereotypes hold water.

Wednesday (Nov 9) - Parque Nacional Cajas
I decided to splurge and booked myself on a tour of the "Cajas", a national park reknowned for its beautiful, plentiful lakes, which is about 30 km outside of Cuenca. I arranged the trip with the firm, Terra Diversa (recommended by the Lonely Planet and Lawrence from the Inca Bar). For $40 I was transported to/from the park, along with 6 others, escorted by a bilingual guide namd "Yoh" Adrian(TM Rocky Balboa), and served lunch at a charming restaurant on the outskirts of the park.

Our day inclued 2 different hikes which totalled up to about 2.5 hours of walking. The weather was somewhat cooperative as in the morning it was partly sunny and once the rain kicked in for the afternoon, the visibility remained fair-to-midland decent. Frankly, the misty rainclouds hovering over the glacial lakes gave the place a mystical Tolkien feel.

Thursday (Nov 10) - Ingapirca

After an early breakfast, I met Ken, a car salesman from Baltimore (sounds like a character out of a Barry Levinson film, eh?) and we caught the 9 AM Transportes Cañar bus ($2.50) to Ingapirca, the largest Inca ruin in all of Ecuador. It takes approximately two hours to get there but they drop you off right at the entrance so it's muy convenientos (forgive my Spanglish!).


The ruin is at a fairly high altitude but thankfully I had my precious fuzzy fleece with me. There are free English & Spanish-speaking guides available but I opted to go solo so that I could roam freely like the buffalo on the range, snapping B&W photos as I traipsed merrily along the rocky pathways. Tourists were at a minimum, blessed be, so I managed to get a number of shots sin personas.

We dearly departed at 1 PM but I wished I´d had another hour to exploe the viscinity of the site. Pooh pooh!


To sum up then - to those who venture to Cuenca, Ecuador, day trips to the "Cajas" and Ingapirca are on the must-do list.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Overlanding in Namibia Part III

Image
Namib-Naukluft, Namibia to Cape Town, South Africa (April 3-8) Originally our ACACIA bus was due to depart from Swakopmund in the early morning so that we could reach our next night's campsite just outside the Namib-Naukluft National Park in the early afternoon. However, our seemingly invincible (and yet sadly not) bus driver Patrick had been diagnosed with cerebral malaria while in Swakopmund and was too ill to continue on as our driver. Therefore, ACACIA had lickedy split found us a replacement driver and flew him out from Jo'burg to meet us at the nearest international airport on our route, that being in Walvis Bay. Our new driver, TJ, a colossal ginger-haired South African fellow sporting dreadlocks who had apparently dropped close to 25 kilos on the Atkins Diet, once through customs, hopped behind the wheel of our truck as if Patrick had simply been keeping his seat warm and......OFF WE SPED! We arrived at our campsite, which was in the southern end of the Namib Desert
Read more

Overlanding in Namibia Part II

Image
Spitzkoppe to Swakopmund, Namibia (March 31-April 3) Spitzkoppe (March 31-April 1) Our third day overlanding brought us to Spitzkop, i.e. "the Matterhorn of Namibia." It is an area of great natural beauty consisting of a group of red rocky granite peaks rising spectacularly above the surrounding flat plains. We camped near the largest peak (1787m) and went on a short guided walk of the area in the late afternoon. During our exploratory walk, we were shown some Bushmen rock paintings that depicted different animals. The red color used in some of these paintings was achieved, so we were told, using a mixture of iron and sacrificial animal blood. Umm...lovely? Our guide kept checking his watch and trying to hurry us along for he had planned for us to reach the "rock bridge" in time to watch the sunset. Unfortunately, time was not on our side due to our dawdling so the guide suddenly urged us to " Run! (Forest) Run!! " And off we all went, sprinting towa
Read more

In the footsteps of the Incas - Part I

Image
Coming to Cusco and the Sacred Valley, I was determined to do some trekking. Being a solo traveller though meant I had to find some group with which to walk. I had purchased the South American Explorers´Handbook on Alternative Inca Trails and a number of them sounded promising and incredibly challenging to my weary bones/joints, but it was a matter of finding a group departing within both my time frame and price range. I emailed a number of the more reputable trekking companies and also visited the office of Q'Ente. Based on all of the info I gathered, I opted to go with Q'Ente even though they´re one of the more expensive companies as they have a sound history when it comes to treating their porters/guides/cooks fairly and they also believe in sustainable tourism which respects the environment. I joined a group of 5 hikers (that`s including me!) on the Salkantay Trek which lasts 5 days with the last day being a visit to the stupendous Inca site, Machu Picchu. I attended a
Read more