Quaint Cuenca (Ecuador)

We’d just had some fabulous adventures in Ecuador's Galapagos Islands and nearby Guayaquil. Now we wanted to see more of Ecuador, with Cuenca being at the top of our list. We’d heard that Cuenca is a UNESCO World Heritage City, with a 500-year-old colonial centre that is packed with architectural gems, and we wanted to see them.

Domes of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Cuenca (UNESCO), Ecuador

Those gems include the beautiful blue-domed "new" Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, and the "old" cathedral, the Church of the Shrine, plus other significant religious and non-religious sites.

But first we had to get to Cuenca from Guayaquil, so we took a taxi to the Guayaquil bus terminal. Except the driver dropped us at the mini-bus terminal, then drove off. After asking around using our poor Spanish, we finally found our way, on foot with all of our gear, to the main terminal.

However, once we got there, it seemed that the whole population of Guayaquil was trying to get to Cuenca on the same bus as us, and the queue for the bus was huge.

Man playing traditional harp, Guayaquil, Ecuador

We queued for around 50 minutes, and while waiting, we enjoyed some wonderful music being played by a guy on a traditional harp. Eventually, we managed to get two seats, boarded the bus, and headed off at about 5 pm.

The ride was interesting, taking us on a very winding and hilly drive, past roadside waterfalls and llamas grazing, and through the clouds and high altitude of Cajas National Park, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

About 5-hours later, we arrived in Cuenca. The city sits in southern Ecuador's Andes Mountains at around 2,560 metres (8,400 feet) above sea level, and is the third largest city in Ecuador, with a population of around 450,000.

Our lovely hotel - Casa Hibiscus Hotel, Cuenca (UNESCO), Ecuador

As soon as we arrived, we grabbed a taxi straight to our accommodation at Casa Hibiscus Hotel, which we found was gorgeous. It's an old house that has been fully restored and added to by its owner's, Cheryl and Dean, previously from Canada.

It’s in the historic centre on Calle Larga with lovely views out over the Tomebamaba River, and within an easy walk to everywhere. It was wonderful to stay in a spacious, clean and comfortable hotel with fantastic hosts.

Then we discovered that the festival that caused the long bus queue in Guayaquil, was a week-long artisan and gastronomic festival, and everyone in Ecuador was reportedly there. So we wasted no time in getting out to join the festivities.

Crowds for the festival in Cuenca (UNESCO), Ecuador

A major part of the festival was being held in an area down a big flight of stairs just near our hotel. There were food tents and handicrafts stalls everywhere, surrounded by happy people enjoying themselves. We sampled all sorts of food as our evening meal, and also enjoyed ourselves as part of the happy crowd.

Back at our hotel later, we learned that the city was totally booked out, so we felt lucky that we had managed to get accommodation.

City Hall, Cuenca (UNESCO), Ecuador

The next day, we had a good look around Cuenca (officially Santa Ana de los Cuatro Ríos de Cuenca). Founded in 1557, its layout is based on the Spanish planning model.

Now, centuries later, it is still faithful to the original town plan, showing beautiful architecture, charming cobbled streets, and many greenspaces. This has given Cuenca its UNESCO status.

Colonial architecture in Cuenca (UNESCO), Ecuador

The old historic centre is filled with masses of attractive colonial buildings. We walked around admiring them for quite some time. Then we visited many sights including museums, several greenspaces and plazas including Plaza San Sebastian, and Plaza San Francisco.

We also wandered along the banks of the Tomebamba River seeing more of the festival activities, and many handcraft stalls. It is a lovely town to walk around despite the huge number of people there - it just made it more vibrant.

Marg in front of the Cruz del Vado, Cuenca (UNESCO), Ecuador

Above the river, we found the Cruz del Vado, a cross set in a gazebo on an attractive plaza. The cross has historic significance, and the plaza gave views of both the historic and modern parts of Cuenca. It is located in one of the more traditional parts of the city and the surrounding architecture and streets are lovely, reflecting the colonial times and the founding of the city.

There was a market there when we visited, and Leigh bought a small travel pouch handcrafted out of leather.

Panama hats, Cuenca (UNESCO), Ecuador

Then we visited the Panama hat factory and museum. The Panama hat got its name because the traditional straw hats of Ecuador were often sold from trading posts near the Panama Canal. Thousands of workers went through there heading for the gold rush in California. Most bought a hat along the way, so they became known as Panama hats. However, they have always been made in Cuenca, which is now known as the source of the Panama hats.

Every hat is artfully woven from toquilla straw by hand, and this art has now been recognized by UNESCO as a World Intangible Cultural Heritage activity.

It was fascinating to see the history of how these local hats had been made over the years. We tried on several but decided to stick with our good old Aussie akubra hats.

Outline of the Pumapungo archaeological site, Cuenca (UNESCO), Ecuador

On another day, we found the Pumapungo archaeological site which contains ruins dating back to the 15th century. It includes the foundations of many buildings, such as a palace, cemetery, barracks, and homes, made out of volcanic rock. While not on the scale of ruins we'd seen at Machu Picchu or Chan Chan in Peru, it was still interesting to visit.

We also visited the adjoining Pumapungo Theatre and Museum, which has a fascinating ethnographic display that includes some gruesome but genuine, shrunken heads from the Amazon.

The flower market, Cuenca (UNESCO), Ecuador

Our next stop was the interesting Plaza de las Flores next to the church of Santuario Mariano del Carmen de la Asunción. There is a wonderfully scented and colourful flower market there which we really enjoyed.

Then we made our way to the main plaza called Abdon Calderon Park, where we admired the town hall and governor's office, the old and the new cathedrals of Cuenca, and the justice area and law courts. It's an impressive area, and is the beating heart of Cuenca.

Family in the Independence Day parade Cuenca (UNESCO), Ecuador

One of the interesting sights we saw was a street parade consisting of people in traditional costumes, marching girls, bands and lots of happy noises. We learned later that it was an annual event to celebrate Cuenca's declaration of independence from Spanish rule in 1820. We felt privileged to see local people and their culture being celebrated in such a joyous and colourful manner.

Later, we walked across town to climb 439 steps up to the Mirador Turi, a lookout over the city.

Marg at the top of Mirador Turi, Cuenca (UNESCO), Ecuador

The views from the top we fantastic, and we enjoyed it, even though we had to climb many steps to get up there.

Later, we were walking back to our hotel past some shanty dwellings when suddenly, a little white dog pounced at Leigh's leg from behind. We hadn't seen it coming so had a huge fright.

It drew blood, but didn't make a serious puncture in her leg or trousers. We quickly found a taxi back to the hotel, and luckily, our hostess who was a nurse, checked it out. She seemed almost as shocked as us, but proclaimed it clean.

Inside the market at Gualaceo, Ecuador

While we were in Cuenca, we took an hour-long local bus ride to the market town of Gualaceo which is known for its weekend produce market. It has a reputation for preserving the recipes of traditional foods such tortillas de maiz (corn tortillas), buñuelos (fritters), dulce de higos (sweet figs), cuy asado (roast guinea pig - cuy is pronounce koowee), and others.

Leigh was all set to sample the guinea pig until she saw them being roasted with a huge bamboo skewer right up through the middle of them – through their poor little bums.

Woman roasting cuy (guinea pig) in Gualaceo, Ecuador

She sampled a knuckle and proclaimed it tasted great, but we were still put off as we've had guinea pigs as pets. Instead, we settled on some local food from a suckling pig stall upstairs which looked much more appealing. The produce and prepared foods were very interesting, and enabled us to see a little of Ecuador’s food culture.

Then we caught another local bus to the quaint village of Chordeleg which is famous for its gold and silver jewellery.

Silverware on lamp post in Chordeleg, Ecuador

It is a delightful little place, set on a hillside with pretty houses and shops and fascinating silver thingys hanging off the street lamps. Marg bought a pair of lovely filigree silver earrings there.

Happy with our day, we headed back to Cuenca. The bus was so full, that we ended up sharing the front seats squashed between the ticket man and the driver. We had a great view of the road but it was rather cramped, and Marg had to keep leaning sideways to avoid being hit by the long gear stick!

Pretty San Blas church and park, Cuenca (UNESCO), Ecuador

On our last day, we walked to Cuenca’s San Blas neighbourhood, on the eastern edge of the historic area of the city. We arrived to find a lovely plaza flanked by an historic and beautiful church. The church dates back to the 17th century and is built in Romanesque style with pink marble cladding.

Too soon, it was time to move on and leave Cuenca. We said our goodbyes to our lovely hotel hosts, then we caught a taxi to the airport. We were flying to Quito, the capital of Ecuador and our next destination.

This is part of a blog series about our travels through the north-eastern countries of South America. The first blog in this series is called “In and around Santiago”.