The Plagues

It's interesting to see how we've all been adjusting to "typical" Ecuadorian life and culture; the latest example came a couple weeks ago when we found out that the country is doing a census this coming weekend (the original weekend for the Cuenca trip), and no Ecuadorian adults could leave their home provinces.  So, they asked us, would we prefer to go to Cuenca that weekend, or the first weekend in December?  None of us had a problem with that following weekend, so away we went, Nov. 12: Daniela and Janett, the professors; Luke, Amanda, and me, the exchange students; and Rebekka, the German intern who lives in the same house as Luke.  This was just a couple days after I came down with what I thought was a 24-hour tummy bug, though I still wasn't feeling quite myself.  We headed out first thing Friday morning, first driving to Ingapirka on our way to Cuenca.  Ingapirka is a set of ruins from two different cultures - the Cañari, or ancient Ecuadorian culture of that part of the Sierra, and the Incas, from Peru.  The two cultures lived side by side but left contrasting buildings and lifestyles in the same area, literally on the same hillside.  It was lightly drizzling the whole time we were there, with the exception of the walk back, when it started to rain a little harder.  But it wasn't too chilly, and Luke had been nice enough to loan Rebekka and me a couple of large garbage bags, which we put over our heads like Bag Skit witches.  It was moderately interesting, and dare I say it, even if it wasn't as hidden and impressive as Machu Picchu, there were fewer tourists, and less mist, so I feel like we saw a lot more.  We had eaten lunch before walking around - for me, a fried whole trout, which I had to pick apart with a fork and remove the bones from my teeth - so afterward we got back on the bus and pushed on to Cuenca, where it was also drizzling.  At one point on the way there, the driver hit a speed bump (which are quite common on the roads here, plus we'd had to take the old road to go to Ingapirka) at a startling velocity, causing Amanda and I to hit our heads very hard on the roof of the bus.  That was a little terrifying, and added a sore neck and natural aversion to the driver to the rest of the weekend.

At long last we did reach Cuenca, however, and dashed straight to the guided bus tour (well, "straight" is an overstatement; the hotel doorman gave us bad directions, so we actually dashed in a giant circle to the bus).  The tour was interesting, but we couldn't see as much because it was getting dark and still drizzling.  By the time we got out at the top of the huge hill overlooking the whole city, the rain had stopped, so we enjoyed walking around in a couple little shops and trying some canelazo, a hot drink made from sugar cane.  Then we headed back for some dinner, which would have been really fun, except that we were all feeling a bit queasy and unsettled from the day.  So we decided to all turn in early, rather than extending the festivities into the evening.  Saturday we got up, had breakfast at the hotel, and went to visit the Museum of Modern Art, which was fantastic!  Some really interesting pieces displayed in a series of rooms connected by outdoor walkways and gardens and patios.  Very fun!  Next we explored the market, where you can find any sort of warm Andean clothing you could imagine, plus all sorts of cheesy little diddlywhops.  Further down, there are also all kinds of traditional medicinal products and talismans to guard against the Evil Eye, to increase fertility, and who knows what else (I'm still trying to figure out why one would need a ziplock of dried cat's tail or a pile of toenails).  We also visited the Cathedral, which is gorgeous on the inside, although the altar of solid gold was a bit alarming...  And we got a chance to stop in a sweets shop where they sell all sorts of typical Ecuadorian candies, made by the nuns in the town.  Some of them were simply heavenly (hee hee!), and others were just kinda so-so, but it was fun to look at all the different cookies and dried fruits and combinations of communion wafers with caramel sauce.

That afternoon we would have gone to Chordeleg, another nearby town, but we were all feeling a little off.  During lunch, Amanda visibly plummeted from mild discomfort to a full-blown fever and nausea.  We decided to let her sleep it off in the hotel room, and we stayed in town to go to the Museum of the Paja Toquillo, better known as the Panama Hat.  That's a misnomer, since the style of hat so popular with retirement-age, cigar-smoking, South American-traversing men is native to the northern coastal provinces of Ecuador.  The museum was kinda fun, seeing all the equipment from the antique processes up through today.  The hat store was even more fun, trying on all sorts of hats, some very classy, some absolutely absurd.  We brought some soup back to Amanda, who was starting to feel a little better.  The rest of us went out for tapas!  Very fun, and quite good!  And I tried this drink that is apparently very popular in Spain - Coke mixed with red wine.  It was strange.  Not bad, just strange.  We headed back to the hotel and rested up for the next day.

On Sunday, even though we were all feeling either genuinely or sympathetically/hypochondriac-ly sick, we woke up early to drive to Chordeleg, a small town known for its silver jewelry.  It's a little different than I expected... we stayed in the big central square (much like the Woodstock Square, minus the trees) and looked around in about 3 dozen different little jewelry stores.  I had pictured handmade pieces laid out by street vendors, but they were mostly all formal jewelry stores like you would see in the States.  Some of them had some good bargains, but most of the stuff was close to prices we'd pay in the U.S., so it wasn't anything spectacular.  It was still a fun little outing, though, and we were starting to feel a little better.  We stopped for lunch - more whole trout - and then pushed on back to Guayaquil.  The ride was long enough, and I think by the end we were all fighting some sort of bug; we all continued to feel a little sick throughout the next week, including a couple students who hadn't even gone on the trip; definitely something going around.  Ugh.  So, from that standpoint, it sounds like kind of a bummer of a trip, but it really wasn't.  Cuenca is a pretty town with a very European colonial feel.  My favorite part was just walking around the cobblestone streets, seeing the mix of colonial architecture with the occasional modern building squeezed in between.  It's the third largest city in Ecuador, but it feels very much like a small town from a couple hundred years ago.  I would certainly go back some day, though I would prefer a weekend when I'm feeling a little better!