Life in Cuenca

We have now been in Cuenca for a while. The day is quite different for each of us: while Gregory spends all morning and one hour in the afternoon in school, I only have a 45 min class and that's it! Gregory is really busy and spends hours doing homework and he is improving fast. Myself, I have been fairly busy with 'housework', sorting stuff out, reading, doing some school homework, planning the next travels through Ecuador, etc, so in effects I have not been bored. But I think that 6 weeks of this might be a bit long, so I may go to the jungle region for a couple of weeks while Gregory finishes school. Nothing finalised yet, but quite possible.

The weather in Cuenca has improved since we arrived a month ago - thankfully - so the days are quite sunny and bright, while the evenings remain fairly cold but ok.
After spending the first week on our own, the flat finally filled up last week - literally, we have no spare rooms left! So now we have Sitara, a meditational Canadian who has lived 15 years in India; Jiny, a South Korean woman who, since has been in the house, has only eaten cucumber and red cabbage marinated with garlic and chilli - raw - with wholemeal rice, of which she drinks the boiled water; Hans, a very tall German student who goes to our same school; and finally Bart, a Dutch young chap whom we hardly see who plays guitarre and goes to capoeira classes. Apart from Bart, all other flat mates have been 'recruited' by Gregory off the street to come and live with us, since Esperanza and Wilson do not speak English and find it hard to find foreigners to fill their rooms. Wilson and Esperanza are the owners of the Gato Liquour Store on Calle Larga 5-79, near the Escalinata, whom we met while buying rum. If anybody wants to reserve a room with them, which is currently $5 per person, they can contact them on tel 282 91 25. They are really nice people and very sociable. Esperanza is particularly sociable, she can talk for hours and is always smiling. We are quite good friends now and she takes us to places with her whenever there is a chance. So we have been to the Virgen del Carmen fiesta with her here in town, which was a really nice traditional church party with traditional dances and fireworks - one of which reached Gregory's eye and worried us a bit for a bit. Then she took me with her to the countryside to do cosecha de maiz, ie pick corn and beans. The last event was Nayeli's - her daughter - last day at school, which was great as all kids were dressed up in either traditional clothes or fancy dress for the end of year dance performances. They also have a son, Pablo, who's won a medal for being the year's best pupil.

Last weekend we went to visit Vilcabamba, which on the map seems quite close by, but it isn't. So we spent some 15 hours on the bus to go and come back - thankfully we decided to leave on the Friday to have at least one full day there. Vilcabamba is a place for relaxing, there are nice hills all around the tiny tranquil town and plenty of oportunities for hiking or horse riding. We took none of these, we simply stayed in the hostel to play pool, enjoy the views and read. And recover from the crazy bus journey and get ready for the way back!! The drivers here drive at incredible speed round blind corners, it is really scary and also quite unpleasant - almost as bad as being in a boat!

Anyways, here are some pics.

view from the flat

our room

shared areas

Esperanza, Wilson, Pablo and Nayeli

Vilcabamba

This is a nice place in town of which we have forgotten the name, with its two nice owers. Gregory had a glass of the alcohol in which the snake was soaking - 75% alcohol so well disinfected, but still pretty disgusting for my standards...