Turi and Cuenca ponderings

Well, this is our last day in Cuenca, and I want to write about a few things that I don’t want to forget.

One of the highlights of our time in Cuenca is going out to eat for our mid-day meal.

Also, we will never forget the sometimes humorous situations the communication barrier created. It always made ordering a meal an adventure.  We became fairly comfortable and confident ordering our “almuerzos,” or fixed lunch. Well, that confidence proved unjustified at one restaurant. Lisa told the waiter we wanted “dos almuerzos.”  The waiter repeated something back that I thought sounded like “dos almuerzos,” and I said “si.”  We were pretty much surprised when the waiter brought out 2 hamburgers to us. I guess “dos almuerzos” and “dos hamburguesa” sound the same if you speak southern Spanish.

Also, I went into our favorite ice cream shop and asked the worker, “"¿A que hora cierras?” (What time do you close?)  She gave me the look of, “What the heck are you saying?” So I said it slower and louder.  Still the same look from her. I then just let her read it on my Google Translate, and she said, “Ah, seis.”  Of course, I’m thinking what the heck, she read the very same thing I was saying. Guess it’s that southern dialect again.

We really enjoyed seeing the plants at the Pumapunga museum. They were gorgeous and huge. They work very hard in the gardens and it shows. (And the museum has easily accessible and clean bathrooms, so we definitely visited there when we were close by.)

I don’t want to forget that there are very hard working people, male and female, that wash clothes in the river. It shocked me at first, but I have seen it several times. One lady had her young son and a dog there, and a huge bag of clothes that she was working on.  They then lay the clothes out on the river bank to dry.

We bought our eggs from the market for about $3.50 for about 30 eggs and Anthony once returned the cartons to the ladies who were selling them and we walked for about an hour with Anthony carrying the cartons. They seemed to appreciate having them returned to them so they could reuse them.

You never know what you will find on people’s backs — babies ....

... or onions???

And then there’s this guy who has obviously not learned the proper technique to carry things yet.

Our last big hike around town was to Turi. We hiked up 439 steps to get there, but it did have a good view of Cuenca at the top. Unfortunately, it was a very smoggy day and we didn’t get the view we had hoped. But I feel like I earned my lunch (almuerzo) that day.

Can you see the steps at the bottom of the hill? Yes, they go all the way up to the church at the top. I had to stop twice to catch my breath. 

Tomorrow our plane leaves at 7:40 for Quito. We will leave our hotel at about 5:30 a.m. I am praying for a taxi to come along, but if not, it will be about a 50 minute hike with a 17 lb backpack on our backs. The sidewalks are full of holes and uneven spots.  And we don’t know if there will even be streetlights to help us see. I am hoping we make it without anymore bruises or skinned knees or knuckles.