Cuenca's Cathedral with it's Iconic Blue Domes welcome us back again
On Tuesday at 4:30 am our limo driver Everett pulls up in front of our Knoxville home. He loads our five suitcases and us into the car and sprints us off to Mc-Gee Tyson airport to begin our journey to Ecuador. After clearing security we grab some seats at the gate and then go for coffee. William comes prepared with his own coffee mug! Three flights and 13 hours later we land in Guayaquil. William has been really dreading the day, but aside for some frustration in checking our bags (United was having system problems) the flights and connections go very well.
After deplaning in Guayaquil we join a queue of easily 500 people awaiting immigration control. Ouch! The line is moving, but slowly. A uniformed man is walking through the crowd and he seems to be directing some people to a faster path. In English I finally ask the group around me what he is saying and a woman says “elderly and children.” In Ecuador elderly is anyone 65 or older. Woo hoo! I guess that there are some advantages to getting old. William and I join the fast track line of old people.
We spend Tuesday night at the Marriott Courtyard and on Wednesday Klever picks us up in his new dual-cab pickup. The three and one-half hour drive to Cuenca takes us along fields of bananas, cocoa, coffee and rice. Then we climb the Andes going through twists, turns, grand vistas, fog and some stretches of road recently repaired from landslides. The Cajas National Park is beautiful, but there are few places to pull over to snap a photo.
After deplaning in Guayaquil we join a queue of easily 500 people awaiting immigration control. Ouch! The line is moving, but slowly. A uniformed man is walking through the crowd and he seems to be directing some people to a faster path. In English I finally ask the group around me what he is saying and a woman says “elderly and children.” In Ecuador elderly is anyone 65 or older. Woo hoo! I guess that there are some advantages to getting old. William and I join the fast track line of old people.
We spend Tuesday night at the Marriott Courtyard and on Wednesday Klever picks us up in his new dual-cab pickup. The three and one-half hour drive to Cuenca takes us along fields of bananas, cocoa, coffee and rice. Then we climb the Andes going through twists, turns, grand vistas, fog and some stretches of road recently repaired from landslides. The Cajas National Park is beautiful, but there are few places to pull over to snap a photo.
The Airbnb condo we have rented for 10 weeks is in a lovely new building located in the center of Cuenca’s UNESCO old city “El Centro”. The new living room furniture is cushioned, but has the typical Ecuadorian 90 degree angle where the seat and back join. Some back pillows make it closer to what our North American bodies prefer. We love having a courtyard right outside our door and private patio area, complete with a humming bird feeder. The condo includes modern conveniences such as an oven and dishwasher, but like the vast majority of homes in Cuenca it does not have heat or air conditioning. It is the winter here now, and temperatures range from 45F at night to 72F during the day. A small space heater takes the nip out of the air before bed and we snuggle under blankets. As we snuggle in for a good nights sleep we are delighted that we do not hear any of the cars, busses or nightclubs that are omni-present in El Centro. It is a very, very nice condo.
We spend the next few days unpacking, buying groceries and generally gearing back into life in Cuenca. On Wednesday we invite friends David and JJ for some wine at the Airbnb before going to dinner. As we leave we pause to enjoy the music in the courtyard of our condo building. Thursday we have a leisurely start to the day then walk around the corner to Sunrise Cafe for their steak and eggs breakfast special. $6.50 for 2 eggs, steak, potatoes or fruit and coffee or tea. The steak is consistently one of the best we’ve had in Cuenca. Can’t beat it!
The Cuenca Symphony Orchestra offers concerts several times a month. Friday’s performance is at Casa de la Cultura, just 3 blocks from our Airbnb. We enjoy the concert, but the seats in the theater are old and uncomfortable. We look forward to future performances at Teatro Pumapungo.
The Cuenca Symphony Orchestra offers concerts several times a month. Friday’s performance is at Casa de la Cultura, just 3 blocks from our Airbnb. We enjoy the concert, but the seats in the theater are old and uncomfortable. We look forward to future performances at Teatro Pumapungo.
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