Before I roll into the few pictures from today let me fill you in a bit on Cuenca itself. Most of the following is taken from Wikipedia but I think it puts things into context for you, the reader.
The city of Cuenca is the capital of the Azuay Province. It is located in the highlands of Ecuador at about 2,500 meters above sea level (8,000 feet). The center of the city (where we are staying) is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Trust site because of its many historical buildings.
While the city, and the area in general, has a rich heritage of indigenous inhabitants, the modern day settlement of Cuenca was founded in 1557 by the Spanish Conquistadors. The population of Cuenca is approximately 500,000. Cuenca is located in the sierra of the Andes Mountains in the southern region of Ecuador. It is approximately nine hours south of Quito and four hours east of Guayaquil.
The dominant features of the city's geography are
also the source of its name in Spanish: the four rivers of Cuenca (meaning a
basin made by a confluence of rivers). These rivers are the Tomebamba (named
after the Inca culture), Yanuncay, Tarqui and Machangara, in order of importance.
The first three of these rivers originate in the Páramo of Parque Nacional
Cajas to the west of the city. These four rivers are part of the Amazon river
watershed. Cuenca is surrounded by mountains on all sides, with passes to the
west, south and east.
Cuenca features a subtropical highland climate. Like the rest of the Ecuadorian Andes,
Cuenca enjoys a mild climate year-round. Days are generally warm and nights are
cool enough that sweaters or jackets are needed. The average daily high temperature
is 69 degrees Fahrenheit. However, due to the higher elevation the "real feel" is a very comfortable 77 degrees. There are two seasons: rainy and
dry.
So now that you have endured your historical and geographical lesson for the day, on with what you came for....
We stepped out of our apartment building to see six Military Police walking past us. We aren't sure what that was about, but no one else seemed to even notice their presence. They certainly were no threat, but we were intrigued to see fully armored military personal wandering the city streets. I sneaked in this picture by having Jana pose for a typical tourist shot.
We made our way on down to Rio Tomebamba. We plan to ease down there sometime soon with a bottle of vino, sit on the river bank and listen to the water flow by. I'm sure you'll see pictures of that, soon!
After crossing the river we passed through Parque La Madre and walked through the Millennial Mall. Leaving the mall heading to the Supermaxi we stumbled into Cuenca's first McDonald's. It's opening last year was a source of controversy among the some 5,000 American expats that have left American and now call Cuenca home. Many felt it would change the character of this lovely city, while some welcomed the opening as sign of more conveniences they're used to coming to Cuenca. We couldn't help but laugh at the sign that read "McPollo, Jr., .99 cents".
The Millennial Mall looked just like any Americano Mall, just on a smaller scale than we are used to.
While at the Supermaxi, we got our own "Supermaxi" rewards card and spent $68 on groceries. We then caught a cab for the 1 mile ride back to our apartment, which costs us $1.35. We would have hoofed it, but we had five fairly heavy (read: Jana's wine) bags of groceries.
There are countless numbers of wonderful restaurants in this town that are very reasonably priced. But today we decided to splurge a little and have lunch at a place that you have to make reservations two weeks in advance for a dinner seating. Tiestos is the name of the place and it was again, fantastic! We have not had a mediocre meal since we've been here. Everything we've eaten has been fresh and wonderful. But Tiestos took things to a whole new level.. We paid the price but it was certainly worth it. Actually we only ate about half of the food they brought us because the portions were so large. But they gladly boxed up our leftovers.
Here's a couple of shots of our exquisite lunch. Jana had the Curry Macadamia Pollo and I had the Azur Queso Pollo. They served several side dishes family style that we shared. The sides were couscous, potatoes, hominy, rice, chickpea salad and mixed vegetables. We washed it all down with our Maracuya jugo. This meal was absolutely out of this world in probably one of, if not, the finest restaurants in this town. Total bill, inclusive of tax and tip, $37.68!
Since we didn't make too big of pigs of ourselves we were able to stop and buy a couple of pastries on our way back. You can tell Jana wasn't thrilled that we were buying two big cake rolls, a doughnut and a tea cake cookie, all for a whopping $1.65.
And a treat we've been waiting on is the ice cream cones at Tuto Freedo's. $1.20 for my banana split and maraycuya double scoop and .90 cents for Jana's single scoop vanilla. She won! The vanilla was incredible!
This evening, we walked over to the Cuenca Chamber of Commerce, where the U.S. Consular from the Guayaquil Consulate of the U.S. Embassy was holding a town hall meeting, open to anyone with a U.S. Passport. We thought we'd just go see what that was about. About 100 expats showed up to ask questions and make special request for their personal situations. We didn't learn anything earth shattering, but it was interesting to hear some of the expats concerns and requests.
Then it was back to the apartment where Jana warmed up our Tiesto's left overs and we were able to enjoin that wonderful meal again. All for a whopping $0 this evening!
Tomorrow morning Jana gets a break from preparing our morning breakfast of yogurt over oats and sliced bananas. Why you say, because Waffles de Belgica, the #2 rated restaurant in the city, opens tomorrow for the first time since we've been in town. They only serve Thursday thru Sunday, so we'll be headed there first thing in the morning. I'm sure the pictures of that will have your mouth watering. Stay tuned....
Buenos Noches!
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