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Funnily Cuenca in Ecuador is in fact the home of the Panama hat! Long story but basically the hats were exported via the Panama canal and the locals in Panama started wearing them and so they got their name. Anyhow Gareth and I had a great time watching them being made and trying them all on!
One of our main reasons for coming to Cuenca was to visit the most important Inca site in Ecuador, Ingapirca, but only when we arrived into Cuenca did we find out that its actually been closed indefinitely due to poor maintenance.Instead we made do with the remains of Pumapungo which are now housed beside a museum, which is built right on top of the ruins strangely enough, but they have done a nice job of replanting the Incan garden with all of the plants they used to cultivate and also have a great collection of native Ecuadorian birds as the Incas were fond of keeping birds and other animals in their cities.The museum had a really interesting exhibit on all of the native Indigenous people and their cultures, customs and dress.The most impressive was the Shaur culture who live in the heart of the Amazon and have remained pretty untouched by civilization.They have some traditions where they shrink heads and then use them in ceremonies, the museum didn´t explain how exactly they do it (but wikipedia knows all http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrunken_heads) but the heads look amazing (if not a little scary), but Ecuadorian law now outlaws this part of their traditions so instead they use sloths heads! Continuing with our cultural side we also took in another museum which went back through all of the civilizations who have lived in Ecuador, all the way back to 2000 years before Christ! Amazing to see.
Aside from all that Cuenca has a huge number of churches, unbelievable in fact.The main square even has two cathedrals facing one another! We managed to watch the Champions League final too between Chelsea and Manchester United, not in a pub as we couldn´t find any open but in an ice cream parlor right on the main square, where we had ice creams and a seat right in front of the screen - much more civilized! Shame we can´t say the same for the game
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