Today we had arranged to go on a walking tour of the city of Cuenca with a guide. We had seen most of the city that we walked today but it was nice to have some information and history about the places that we see everyday. Our guide picked us up in his car at our apartment at just after 9 and we headed into El Centro from the west end. After Juan finally found somewhere to park (it's not the easiest thing to do here) and had a little help with the parallel parking from a security guard, we headed off on foot to learn about Cuenca. We began at the church of San Sebastian and learned that in the square outside the church is where the bull fights used to take place. Thankfully bullfighting is no longer legal in Cuenca, and later this year the whole country of Ecuador will be taken a vote on whether to outlaw it across the country.
We wandered all through the western part of the city and Juan was full of interesting info that is too much to relate here. We visited a little workshop of a man who makes things out of metal and watched how he decorates each piece. It's quite an art but unfortunately there are fewer and fewer people here who are learning the art form as the younger generations leave for the US and Europe. It took him about a minute to hammer the decoration into this piece of metal but some of the pieces he had in his store he told us took him more than a week just to decorate.
We walked along an area known as El Vado which apparently around 10 years ago was too dangerous to walk through as it was full of 'gangstas' and 'bandits'. It's all been cleaned up and is now undergoing some serious restoration. All in this area are the craftsmen who the locals take their hats to when they need to be repaired. We walk past doorways leading into small dark rooms all the time that have bunches of hats hanging on the walls. We thought they were all for sale but apparently not, they all belong to people and are just in to be repaired; the tags on them are not price tags but the names of the owners. If the number of hats on the walls are anything to go by it's a thriving business, although it'll kill you as they use sulphur to get the white colour of the hats - not the most user friendly product.
After we walked along a super muddy area where the restoration is taking place. The workmen didn't seem to mind that we were walking through their building site. We discovered that there is a Dutch-Ecuadorian museum here and the owner has a gorgeous golden retriever who took offense to Mike ignoring here and jumped on him with two muddy feet. Also, right next door to this place is a Satanic museum; it is not called that but when we looked in the window there were skulls and weird stuff everywhere.
Even though we have been in there plenty of times Juan took us into the Mercado 10 de Agosto. It's cool to go with a local as they can explain what we are looking at. We got to try Rambutan which looks like a spiky strawberry but tastes nothing like one, the inside actually looks like a Fox's glacier mint. We also tasted chirimoya which is a custard apple and it was lovely, very desert like, smooth and creamy; we got to spit while we were eating it, we had to get rid of the big black seeds somehow. After the fruit tasting we went to check out all the medicinal plants and heard how Juans grandmother can cure anything with herbs and plants. He pointed out the hallucinogenic trumpet looking flowers that people here still use, not really to get high for the sake of getting high but to allow them to take a spiritual journey. Apparently the Incas used them to allow them to make the long journey from here to the coast in a short time, they gave them strength or something.
While we were upstairs in the market we saw something we hadn't seen before even though we've been in the market loads of times. Under the stairs were a couple of older Chola Cuencanas that were 'cleansing' some children. They had eggs in their hands and were rubbing them all over the kids from their heads to their feet. They did this for a little while before cracking the egg and showing the inside to the child's mother. Apparently what happens is that all the bad energy in the child gets pulled into the egg, and when they crack it they can see the badness in the egg. After the egg bit they 'drank' something that Juan said was alcoholic and then spat it over the child before marking a cross on the head and belly of the child with ashes. i have no idea whether this actually works, but there was a line of people waiting to have their child cleansed.
After the market we walked through the flower market and discovered that a bouquet of about 36 roses here costs $5.00. There is a gringo price of course but it's still nowhere near the cost of flowers in the US or the UK, and they are absolutely beautiful; they even smell like roses. just behind the flower market there is a door that we had never been through and I assumed it was to a store; I was half right, it actually goes into a church (there are 52 churches in cuenca, one for every Sunday of the year) where people go to light candles for whatever they light candles for. But it is also possible to buy certain products from the nuns that are cloistered within. There are 99 nuns (sounds like a lot but it's what we were told)living inside and they belong to the Carmenite order and since they are cloistered no one ever sees them. To pay for their living expenses they make wine and honey and different desserts as well as lotions that they sell to the people in Cuenca. They have a revolving shelf that the people put the money on and then when it is turned back the product that they requested is on the shelf. Mike and I will probably never be able to buy anything from the nuns though as there's a secret code you have to know before they'll sell you anything. They say something to you about whether you are a good catholic and then you have to respond appropriately. Juan told us the code but it was in spanish and I can't remember it, and besides, is it right to lie to a nun?
Besides the products that they sell inside there is also a little doorway outside where someone sells something called Agua de pitimas which literally means a bit more cos once you've drunk the water you can ask for a top up. According to Juan it's also known as dirty water and the nuns make it with flowers, herbs and other things like Valium. It was pretty good and kept us mellow for the rest of the afternoon.
Afterwards we walked to Parque Calderon and actually went inside the new cathedral which was spectacular. believe it or not, we sit in the park most days and this was the first time we'd been inside. The cathedral is not actually finished and never will be as the architect made a little mistake when it was built. The cathedral he designed was made with marble from Cuenca but when it was built they brought the marble from Italy which is more dense and thus heavier. The cathedral is therefore missing it's two towers which would have been placed on the flat sides; if they built them the cathedral would collapse - nice planning!
Juan went to get the car while we sat in the square and then we headed off to the Panama hat factory. Along the way we found out where the red light district of Cuenca is, it's on the same road where all the car dealerships are; if Mike tells me he's going to look for a used carro I know exactly what he means! Unfortunately we arrived at the factory just as all the workers were heading off to their siesta so we didn't get to see them actually working but we looked around the museum and learned how the hats are made. The basic form is made out in the countryside by women, and then the unfinished hats are brought into Cuenca and finished off. We tried on a number of hats, depending on the quality of the work they can cost anywhere from $20.00 to $2000.00. The longer it takes to make them and the finer the fiber that's used the more they cost; some of those suckers can take 8 or more months to make. We didn't buy a hat here even though Mike does want to get one cos the owner yelled at Juan when we first arrived, he was quite rude.
Later took a ride up to Turi (which means brother in Quichua) and viewed Cuenca from on high before being dropped off in time to have Locro de Papas for lunch. We had a very fun and informative few hours with Juan.
Mike: I keep boiling the trumpet plants but can't even get a buzz!
Happy Anniversary to you too babe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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