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I am now in Cuenca, we travelled here yesterday. As a group we took the option of paying a bit extra to hire a mini bus for the journey which meant we could make stops along the way, which was well worth it, but it was a long day, after leaving the hotel in Baños at 7.30am and arriving here about 6.30pm I think! The first stop we made was at a small town to go to a local market. It was very interesting, and we were fortunate to get to see it, as it really was a proper Ecuadorian market, no other tourists, apart from us, and nothing for tourists to necessarily buy. The people had on traditional dress and the sights and sounds and smells of the market were really interesting! I didn't like the smells so much....walking through the butchers section, yuck, with meat hanging everywhere, then there was the fish section...turns out that on Sundays local markets cook whole pigs, yes, I mean whole pigs, then serve up bits of it with veg as a sunday meal. There were lots of these cooked pigs to be seen, including heads! (Some of our group had this for lunch today from the market in Cuenca, and said it was really tasty- I really didn't fancy it though). There were loads of people selling all sots of things, the fruit and veg in other countries always amazes me as it's always so big and brightly coloured. The cabbages were at least the size of footballs! You could see people doing their weekly shops and also trading for big sacks of stuff which they would then sell. People appeared to typically carry their shopping on their back. I'm glad we got to see this market as although we go to another one later on, one of the biggest in South America I think, a lot of stuff there will be for tourists, as well as locals.
We stopped for lunch and also to take photos along the way- the scenery, and driving through the mountains, was very beautiful. Our last stop was to visit the ruins of Ingapirca, which were built by the Cañari people who were there before the Incas came. When the Incas came they obviously took it over and it became to capital of the northern part of the Inca empire. Unfortunately it's not til faily recently that they've been looked after it so people used to be able to just take stones away, etc. It is now protected and was an interesting visit, but people who've already been to Peru said it didn't really compare to what you see there, however it is the most important Inca site in Ecuador and I think it was definitely worth visiting. It was at high altitude though, 3230m, so at times I struggled- the combination of that, plus my asthma, which gets bad when I get a cold, and my poor level of fitness was not good! (Unfortunately I have developed a cold alongside the very sore throat so felt really ill all day)
Anyway, so on to Cuenca. It's a pretty town and the centre is a Unesco World Cultural Heritage site. It's a nice place to wander around, where you feel safe and can look at lots of pretty buildings. I went with some of the girls to do that today, and we saw some churches and the old and new cathedrales- it certainly has a lot of them! I then went to a place called Casa de la Mujer where there were lots of little stalls. After I had lunch at a place mentioned in the Lonely Planet where people from a local community organise tours but also do lunches. It cost me only $1.50 for Quinoa soup (very tasty), something that tasted a bit like chick peas, and a bowl of rice and lentils- it was very nice and cost about only 90p! After I went to meet the group at a Panama hat factory/museum/shop, as it turns out Panama hats come from and are made in Ecuador and always have been, never in Panama! They were used by people in Panama for protection from the sun whilst working on the Panama canal, hence where the name came from. I just don't understand why noone ever corrected this mistake! It was interesting to see how they are made then we went to the shop and everyone tried on loads of different hats! They were not only panama style traditional hats but also the type you could wear to weddings or the races but made from the same weave. They were really nice and lots of people bought them for themselves or as presents. Hats don't suit me so I got a purse with some of the woven material as part of it. The gift shop next door also enticed all the girls to buy jewellery! I got a pretty silver bracelet, which is cool, as there is a village nearby famous for it's gold and silver jewellery which we won't get a chance to go to.
Two thirds of the group are off out to a nearby village tonight to go and try 'cuy', which is guinea pig! Needless to say I will not be going! It was enough to see guinea pigs on BBQs in Baños! I just can{t imagine eating it....The rest of us will find somewhere to eat in town I expect. We fly back to Quito tomorrow afternoon as it's otherwise a 10-12 hour bus journey. Not sure what I'll do in the morning, but I might just take it easy as I'm still not feeling well, hoping it'll clear up soon! On Wednesday we travel to Cayambe, which is north of Quito to stay in a hacienda for a few days which should be fun. Bye for now!
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