Today, I fell in love with Cuenca. It's amazing what a few rays of sun can do - or sheer desperation?! Whatever the reason, I saw Cuenca with new eyes. To my surprise, you can get on a double decker bus in Cuenca to take you round all the sights, and this is what I did. I swear by these buses. You can get an overview of the whole town in approximately two hours. And in Ecuador they let you stand up on top. Until the area of the town where, if you're not careful, you might get garrotted by the low-hanging cables.
Cuenca has some fascinating history, which I was too grumpy to write about yesterday. Before the Incas arrived, it was under Cañari governance and called Guapondeleg. The Incas renamed it Tomebamba and under their reign it became the second capital of the Inca empire, after Cusco in Peru. There is a statue of the Inca leader Huayna Capac in Cuenca next to some Inca ruins, in honour of the man who was born in Tomebamba and who raised this city to such importance within the Inca Empire. Cuenca continued to rise in importance during the colonial period and was at its peak during the 1820s when Ecuador gained independence.
Cuenca is a beautiful city still today, although some parts could do with some restoration. It is a city that has everything you could possibly need within reach, and there is also the national park of Cajas close by, which I would love to visit but have decided to leave for another time. It is a haven of tranquility with a history that rivals most others.
And who says women are fickle?!
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| Huayna Capac |
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| overlooking Inca ruins |
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| lower deck of the bus! |
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| flower market |
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| This museum was closed unfortunately. |
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| hornada - pork roasted on a spit |
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| a whole section of the market just for hornada |
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