From Baños we made our way to Cuenca, a city of around 500,000 in the south of ecuador. Its by far the prettiest city we have seen in ecuador. Im not a massive fan of colonialism but they do win hands down on architecture round here. probably because they raized everything else to the ground - but ive had enough of breeze block buildings!
Cuenca is a university town with a really nice feel to it. What made it extra special was that we were able to meet up with two friends we have met on our travels - charlie is english but lived in cuenca for a while - we met her in medellin where we spent hours in the science museum together. Despite being ill due to some dodgy guineapig (no we havent tried it yet), she valiently took us round some of the city and took us to an amazing market where we ate delicious roast hog with special local corn. It was great to get a more in depth perspective on the culture and history of the place. I've been looking in vain for a good book about the countries we are in for ages now.
I did find a book documenting a year with the Cañari people - the indiginous group from this area which i think helped a bit. Its from 2000 though, and i can only hope that the political and social situations have improved for them, beause its a very sad book. One thing i did learn is that sex out of marriage and teenage pregnancy is not considered to be a taboo amongst indiginous communities. Although once pregnant, the woman must marry as sinlge motherhood is considered to be a problem. It shows the complex relationship these cultures have with the catholic church. and also explains why you rarely see an indiginous woman (or teenager) without a baby on her back.
Actually, these women always seem to have something strapped to their back with a scarf; if not a baby, then a huge basket of market produce... even those huge heavy gas canisters for stoves!! You dont really see the men carrying anything though.
One mystery she cleared up for us was regarding all the middle aged men we saw who looked like they had been in a fight- turns out nose jobs are very common here!
Our other friend is Vladimir (communist mum). He is a real life cuencan who we met at lake quilotoa. we met him at his mum's book shop on campus to invite him for lunch and ended up piling into his car for an impromptu tour of the city while he delivered his sisters chocolates! He really was very generous, and it was great to meet someone who takes such a pride in his city and culture. luckily he was the first to bemoan the bad planning and conditions in the other cities in the country! he´s a big fan of the current left wing government and it was great to hear about some of the forward thinking projects that are in place. Cuenca has had a no dumping policy in its river for over 15 years - which means in 5 years time it can claim ´living´status - people can swim in it! in a city! in ecuador! (this constitutes a big achievement)
We really enjoyed the feel of cuenca it felt a bit like brighton with mountains of cultural stuff going on everywhere.
nevertheless, while we were there the was nearly a riot as a rumour of a bank closure swept the city. it turned out to be false, but ecuador has a history of naughty bankers running off with the cash and leaving everyone unable to access there own money - no doubt a contributing factor to their economic meltdown and adoption of the american doller in 1999.
Unfortunately, everyone we spoke to in Cuenca also told us that crime is on the increase, and its doubly unfortunate that the blame seems to be set squarely on the shoulders of peruvian and colombian immigrants. colombians in particular seem to get a hard time outside of their counrty, in part due to a steady influx of refugees from the guerrilla conflicts. Bigotry abounds everywhere it seems.
I think that the main problem for cuenca is that it has been voted the best place in the world for retiring north american and european ex pats. This influx has pushed many ecuadorians out of the housing market and the sudden increase in wealth inequality has lead to a rise in opportunistic crime - bloody immigrants!!
Me and dermot also took the opportunity of a city break to have some spanish lessons. I cant believe we didnt do this before! My teacher was great - her opening discussion question was ´what do you think about religion?´ (eeek!) and we covered everything from feminism, the royal family, dieting, squatting rights and the treatment of minority cultures - not exactly light hearted stuff but it stretched my spanish nicely!
From Cuenca it was a hop over the border to the surfing town of Mancora Peru!
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