Southern Exposure

Sunday, February 1

I was very happy with our selection of hostal Chordeleg. It was a converted colonial home right in the center of Cuenca. Not only did we get to park our bikes in the lobby, our room was clean and spacious with a little balcony overlooking one of the churches. The included breakfast was tasty and the overall service was great. We even were able to connect to the public wi-fi network that was available for free in the center of the city. What a great concept!

After breakfast, while Matt was doing minor bike maintenance downstairs, I caught a glimpse of a parade from our balcony. A procession of people dressed in colorful traditional outfits, some on foot, some on horses, some dancing, and others playing instruments, was moving towards the church outside our hostal.

It seemed like a great opportunity to get a taste of local culture, so we joined in the festivities.

Out on the plaza, judging by the groups of people in their traditional outfits, the different countries’ flags they were carrying and the large number of children dressed in folk and religious costumes, we concluded it was some kind of a cultural festival, aimed mainly at kids and adolescents.

Nobody at our hostal could tell us what that all was about.

After snapping photos of the fiesta, we went to visit one of the local markets, Mercado 10 de Agosto, which is mainly known for its selection of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and local food.

While there was nothing to buy in terms of the touristy stuff, it was quite a fascinating view of a day-to-day Cuencan life.

We each sampled one of their fresh fruit smoothies (for 30 cents each!), starred at the full roasted pigs on display, got some fruits for the road and headed off to continue our tour of the city.

Strangely enough, apart from the morning’s parade, the city felt very deserted. I guess, as true Catholics the locals spend their Sundays at home with the family.

We wondered around the center (UNESCO World Heritage Cultural site) looking at the striking churches and buildings, grabbed a quick lunch and some ice cream at the very popular “Tutto Fredo” cafe on the main square, and after discovering that all artisan shops were closed (Matt was still looking for his perfect Ecuadorian hat) we went back to the hotel to figure out our plans for the rest of the afternoon.

After a quick rest we decided to venture off for a walk along the river and see the sunset from the Turi overlook, a hill to the south of the city.

As we were approaching the river, we were hit with a water balloon from one of the apartment buildings on the street. It mainly hit me in the back soaking my t-shirts and jeans pretty badly.

Earlier that day we noticed that throwing water bombs was one of the favourite kids’ activities in Cuenca. We busted a little girl who was eyeballing us to throw the water filled balloon, missing us barely. This time they got me good. Its funny, because as a kid I remember throwing water bombs from the balcony of my 10th floor apartment in Moscow, and having so much fun with it. Karma surely does catch up with you sooner or later. For that reason I was not mad at whoever did it. I hope they had a good laugh hearing me scream. 🙂

After our river walk we realized the clouds were pretty thick and we were not going to have a good sunset, so we abandoned the idea of Turi, and took a cab to the local mall in hopes of giving Matt a haircut. The people at the salon did not acknowledge our presence for 10 minutes so we left. Took a bus (with a long detour) back to the hotel, got some pizza for the room and spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on the blog.