Cuenca, Ecuador
11 - 13 April
Cuenca was our next destination. This city had a colonial feel with its whitewashed buildings,
We then ventured on to the Museum Prohibido Centro Cultural on recommendation by Hubert, the crazy German from Vilcabamba.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) it was closed and while we admired/gawped at the strange and freaky façade we attracted the attention of the friendly, grey bearded neighbour, who summoned us over in Dutch. As a retired captain of a ship he captivated us with his stories of his time at sea and him leaving Holland for his Ecuadorian love. He then invited us into his house to view his collection of various antiques he’d accumulated over the years. “You can buy anything in my house” he kindly informed us! As much as we were tempted, we wisely decided against substituting our faithful backpacks for one of his elaborate wooden chests.
After that interesting encounter, we wandered around and followed the sounds of marching bands where we found ourselves at the centre Cuenca’s 450th birthday celebration. Various companies and schools participated in the parade, each having their own theme and costumes, ranging from men on stilts to Miss Cuencas doing the sultry royal wave on board a float.
On our walk home, Gayle splashed out on a £3 haircut by a gay, long haired flamboyant Columbian hairdresser who randomly cut at will, in between posing for photos, hugging his “brother” (lover?) and getting over excited about our attempts to communicate in Spanish. It came as no surprise, that Gayle then wore her hair in a pony tail for the rest of the trip!
After a long afternoon of ambling around the cobble streets, we went for dinner at an Italian restaurant where we giggled and had a heart to heart over a bottle of wine.
11 - 13 April
Cuenca was our next destination. This city had a colonial feel with its whitewashed buildings,cobblestone streets, and balconies adorned with blooming flowerboxes. With Henley and Ascot in mind, it was here we made our second extravagant purchase – a Panama hat – a must-have purchase in Cuenca. Here we were greeted by a lovable old man, Alberto, apparently famous for making these intricately hand
woven Panama hats, as demonstrated by the numerous photos and magazine articles framed up on the wall. When questioned about our nationality, a very excited Alberto pulled out his scrapbooks and proudly showed us photos of previous visitors to his shop as well as postcards sent from their countries on their return. So we had our photo, and we have yet to send our postcard to him.
woven Panama hats, as demonstrated by the numerous photos and magazine articles framed up on the wall. When questioned about our nationality, a very excited Alberto pulled out his scrapbooks and proudly showed us photos of previous visitors to his shop as well as postcards sent from their countries on their return. So we had our photo, and we have yet to send our postcard to him. We then ventured on to the Museum Prohibido Centro Cultural on recommendation by Hubert, the crazy German from Vilcabamba.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) it was closed and while we admired/gawped at the strange and freaky façade we attracted the attention of the friendly, grey bearded neighbour, who summoned us over in Dutch. As a retired captain of a ship he captivated us with his stories of his time at sea and him leaving Holland for his Ecuadorian love. He then invited us into his house to view his collection of various antiques he’d accumulated over the years. “You can buy anything in my house” he kindly informed us! As much as we were tempted, we wisely decided against substituting our faithful backpacks for one of his elaborate wooden chests.After that interesting encounter, we wandered around and followed the sounds of marching bands where we found ourselves at the centre Cuenca’s 450th birthday celebration. Various companies and schools participated in the parade, each having their own theme and costumes, ranging from men on stilts to Miss Cuencas doing the sultry royal wave on board a float.
On our walk home, Gayle splashed out on a £3 haircut by a gay, long haired flamboyant Columbian hairdresser who randomly cut at will, in between posing for photos, hugging his “brother” (lover?) and getting over excited about our attempts to communicate in Spanish. It came as no surprise, that Gayle then wore her hair in a pony tail for the rest of the trip!After a long afternoon of ambling around the cobble streets, we went for dinner at an Italian restaurant where we giggled and had a heart to heart over a bottle of wine.
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