Apartment in Cuenca

On Friday night, we moved into an apartment in Cuenca located on Calle Larga Sreet in the Barranco district. The unit has a bedroom, kitchette and bath (175 SqFt). There is wireless internet access, an alarm system, and weekly maid service. We will be renting the property until the end of January for $270/month. The apartment overlooks the Tomebamba River from a roof-top balcony and is very close to indigenous markets. We are very excited.

Climb to Turi

Yesterday, after spanish class, we hiked to Turi, which is a small village on a ridge to the south of Cuenca . It was a beautiful day and the views were spectacular. We spent some time at the top taking pictures and looking through our binoculars. The city is very spread out and buildings any higher than six or seven stories are rarely seen. After appreciating the views, we wandered a little further up the hill to a small cemetary overlooking a valley south of the ridge. It was peaceful there, lovely scenery, but was evident that several graves had been robbed and an eerie feeling quickly ended our visit. We walked down the mountain and picked up some pollo for dinner.

Fiestas at Verde Limon

Our stay at Verde Limon last week was far from lonely and boring. We conveniently managed to walk into a energetic group of people who had spent several days together. We were warmly welcomed to join their family. Each night seemed to house a celebration, whether it was simply to celebrate a feast of good food or to see-off departing guests of the hostal. Every night someone made dinner and we all sat together enjoying the company, wine, and endless variety of jokes. There were friends from Rhode Island, Lima, Ile de la Reunion (off the coast of Madagascar), France, Finland, Columbia, Argentina, and Cuenca. This all occured in spanish (enlglish and french were used when required) and it was an excellent way to practice our conversation skills. This past Friday night two fellows from France showed up with a guitar and violin. We played music late into the night, singing and dancing. Not entirely sure how, but we successfully managed to wake up a very serious backpacker from the Czech Republic. He stood in the doorway of the fiesta noise and asked politely, in a very interesting pair of tight bright red underwear, if it would be possible to keep the volume down. We all bursted into laughter (except for the Canadians), realizing it was 3AM, and we made our way downstairs to finish playing music. Almost everyone we spent time with last week has left, and a new group of people, including hostal administration, have happily arrived.

Sombreros and Colibris

This past Sunday, we woke to a quiet hostel, now that many of our amigos have moved on to different locations in Ecuador. I had forgotten about the reality of quick friendships while traveling, which has reminded me of the importance of enjoying every moment, with the people we met and in the places we are. With this in mind and our tummies full of fresh eggs, bread and mangos, (every morning we go to the little shops around our hostel to collect these and other items) we set off for a day of wondering this city of white walls and red roofs. Our first stop was the Sombrero Museo and Panama hat store, which are actually Ecuadorian, that have been wrongly named. They are in fact called Montecristi hats/ toquilla-straw hats, and are part of one of the local aboriginal group's traditional costumes, which is still worn by many. We learned about the hat making process, tried on dozens of potential sun-protectors of all shapes and sizes, and then continued our tour to the museum´s rooftop terrace. To exit, we had to walk through their café, which was selling coffee from all over Ecuador!! Interestingly, this was one of the few places that we have been that sold brewed coffee and not instant coffee. Needless to say, we stayed for a cup of café con leche, one from the area and the other from the Galapagos – they were both delicious! But the best part of this cup of coffee (and for me, the whole day) was the beautiful colibris (hummingbirds) that graced us with their presents. The classic hummingbird feeders were expertly placed just outside the windows of the café and for at least an hour Phil and I and about seven hummingbirds happily sipped our brews. There were two varieties, one that our server called a fly (much prettier then a fly of course, but perhaps as common) and the other we identified as a Sparkling Violetear (here is a picture for those who can help us confirm this). The large size and beauty of this second colibri was enough to make us both watch in awe as it fluttered through the sky. Eventually we left, heading to the large indoor market, knowing that we will be back for cup of joe and a hummingbird show!!

Luis Uyaguari Quezada

On Thursday afternoon, we went out for our regular lunch and made our way to spanish class for 2PM. Upon arriving at the front door of the school, my teacher was waiting in her car and asked us to join her. Mary and I, with our teacher's drove and spoke in spanish together. I realized soon afterwards that we were headed to my teacher´s friend's guitar construction and reparation shop. We had talked about her friend briefly in class, and I had expressed a keen interest in potentially visiting his shop one day. I had not expected it to become a part of spanish class. We drove for approximately 15 minutes through old town, up onto a ridge overlooking the city, and down a few small dirt roads. We entered through a half- opened door and met Luis Uyaguari Quezada. He has been making acoustic and classical guitars for nearly 38 years and the business was passed down to him from his father. His guitars range between $300 and $3000 dollars and he mostly sells his guitars to maestros in Ecuador. It is difficult to describe how incrdeible this man's finishing work is and how passionately he describes his processes. One particular portion of the guitar that is unique to his style is his rossette-craft (decoration around the sound hole of the guitar). He spends hours and hours embedding small pieces of all different varieties of wood to create beautifully intricate circular mosaics around he opening of the guitar. I played some music for the Luis and we exchanged contact information. He has invited me back to visit him again and I have been toying with the idea of asking him to to teach me how to make a guitar. It would be a great introduction to the trade and a wonderful opportunity to work on my spanish. We were there for over 2 hours and left feeling extremely fortunate to have met Luis.

Last weekend in Cuenca

Last Sunday we awoke reasonably early and made a plan to visit the central park where a local music group was playing a small concert. We were expecting some new and interesting music; however it was fairly average and we left early. Our plans changed and we headed for the Museum of Modern Art six blocks away. The entrance was free and the displayed exhibit was the work of a group of 5 artists, from 4 different countries in South America (Columbia, Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela). The museum was in an old monestary and contained various interesting hallways, passages, and atriums. When the museum closed for the day, we left and found ourselves at a very busy market. It was well timed, as we had built up an appetite wandering around the cobblestone streets of Cuenca. The market was divided into meat sections (poultry, beef, fish, pork), fruits, vegetables, spices, fruit juices, and pure cocoa. We were kindly swayed by a lady behind a pork counter to buy lunch from her. She held a piece of pork up with her hands, reaching enthusiastically over her large cooked pig, which ¨hogged¨ the majority of her counter-space, and encouraged us try it. It was delicious, perhaps some of the best tasting meat we have had since arriving in South America. Very tender and full of taste. We ordered almuerzo (lunch special) quickly afterwards. She dug her hands into a pot of rice and filled a plate, then her hands plunged into the pig's body grabbing a handful of meat and dropping it onto the rice. She added potatoes and salad (one handful of each). It was enough food for a family and came to a total of $1.25. We left the market with various fruits and made our way to the park. We ate fruit and watched the locals play futbal and volleyball (a very popular sport here).

Ecuador, Cuenca - Hostal Switch

We switched from the Santa Fe Hostal to the Verde Limon Hostal this past Monday. The information pertaining to our latest location is as follows:

Verde Limon Hostal-Restaurante

Juan Jaramillo 4-89 y Mariano Cueva
Telefax 593-07-2831509 / 593-07-2820300

Cuenca, Ecuador

cuenca@verdelimonhostal.com

http://www.verdelimonhostal.com/