ESPAÑA

Thursday began a trip I have had planned for awhile. But no amount of planning could have helped us when we arrived early to the airport in Chattanooga only to have a delay, which is not a good way to begin a journey with three connections, two of which are tight. I was trying not to worry. . .

Nonetheless, we made our way to Spain, which will consist of Granada, Segovia, and Madrid, and then the girls will fly back home,  and Anthony and I will continue to Barcelona (the girls have already traveled there).  We are looking forward to this special time together as it is rare that we are together as a family even though we live in the same city.

Hannah had fractured her foot 4 weeks ago, so I requested a wheelchair for the connections and it worked flawlessly in Charlotte, but in London it was more trouble than help, so the rest of the way we decided not to use one.

I had seen a picture of the Alhambra on the internet in a Facebook travel group and I thought it was so beautiful and thought one day I would like to go visit there but also thought it would never be possible. But when there are two different banks offering credit cards that each offer enough American Airlines points for a roundtrip ticket to Europe, we each got the two cards, got the points, and were able to get our girls tickets too!

We have been told that Spaniards are very laid back. We got our first indication of that when I was having difficulty placing my bulky backpack in the overhead bin on our small plane going into the Granada airport. Several of the straps were hanging out and we thought that the flight attendant who probably has lots of experience stuffing things in the bins would take care of them. Well, the FA came along, made a futile attempt and then just shut the bin with these two foot long straps hanging down, which would have been swinging around a person's face if they were left there. All four of us were watching to see how the FA was going to handle the strap situation and when he just shut the door we all died laughing. Thankfully a few minutes later another FA came along and without too much effort, was able to stuff the straps in so they would not be swinging around hitting a person down below.

We arrived in Granada at night, grabbed a taxi, and found our Airbnb for our three nights stay. The lady who gave us our keys told us about the free tour the next morning at 10:30 and we decidedto give it a try, and it was a very good choice. We visited many of the must see places in my trusty Rick Steve's travel book and more.

Also, a night tour was offered of Sacramonte and flamenco afterwards. There was a lot of walking up and down many beautiful rock paths that are also used by cars living in that part of the city. On the night tour we met a couple from Alabama, one of whom is a professor at Auburn and the wife is a rancher. It was a hoot getting to chat with someone who is from a neighboring state.

The next day we woke up early to make our 8:30 entrance to the palace at the Alhambra. I had read so many times that we needed to get our tickets months early for our visit there and that an early time slot was best. So, of course, we got there extra early and were about the only ones there, except for one more person, a young single traveler from Charleston, SC. She was in Spain working and took a trip to Granada to see the Alhambra also. And it did not disappoint. There is so much history here, first with the Moors, then with the Christians taking over in 1492. And yes, this is where Columbus got his funding from Queen Isabel to go exploring to find riches in India and got credit for "discovering" America. What is very unique about Granada is how the Christians came in and made the mosques into the Cathedrals and there are so many buildings that have that influence.

We have eaten many pastries here, and were told that we must eat a Piononos de Santa Fe. They were very good, but the chocolate croissants were my favorite.

And just fyi, when you order a hot choco!ate, it has the texture of pudding just before it is completely firm, and was perfect for dipping our churro's. The other pics are the girls with the start of our first meal in Spain and the other is a big slab of meat that they, for lack of a better term, chisel off the meat to put on the plate.

Since we are in Spain, Hannah and Anthony decided to do a little "Running With The Fake Cow. "

This morning we got up and made it to the bus station about an hour early (we had bad flashbacks of our time in the Cuenca bus station), but found things completely orderly and understandable even to us. Right now we are on a double decker bus to Madrid and will then make our way to Segovia via train , at least that is our plan.

Goodbye Cuenca, Hello (again) Quito

On Monday, we woke up at 5 a.m., and left our apartment in Cuenca at 5:30 enroute to the airport to catch our plane to Quito. We were able to hail a taxi to give us a lift to the airport, which saved us from walking about 2.5 miles carrying our 17-pound backpacks.  Our flight went well, and we made it to the Quito airport at about 8:30 a.m.

At about 9,300 feet above sea level, Quito is the second-highest  official capital city in the world, after La Paz.  

When we arrived at Quito airport, we ate breakfast and just relaxed at the lounge for about four hours. We even entertained the thought of trying to change our return tickets to get back home on Tuesday since we were already at the airport. However, our research indicated we would be charged several hundred dollars if we changed our tickets, so we decided to stick with our original plan and return home Thursday. 

We caught a bus from the airport and rode to the Rio Coca Bus Terminal. From there, we walked about 2.5 miles to our hotel. We were able to dodge a couple of rain showers during our walk by ducking under a bus stop and a business overhang. 

We are staying at the Hotel Eugenia in Quito, and its architecture made us think it was built in the early 1900s. However, it is only about 14 years old. The pillowcases and towels all have “Hotel Eugenia” embroidered on them. That’s a little feature you don’t see everyday. The complimentary breakfast at the hotel has scrambled eggs, potatoes, ham, French toast, fresh fruit and fresh juice.  We really enjoyed breakfast. 

On Tuesday, we walked to Quito’s historic city center and enjoyed a lot of sights along the way.

We walked around the Plaza de Independencia. 

We decided to take photos of the Virgin of El Panecillo from afar as she was on top of a large hill, and you allegedly have to walk thru a sketchy neighborhood to get close to her.

There are several architecturally interesting Cathedrals in Quito. The one below is the Basilica del Voto Nacional.

We saw this street performer that was pretty bold. He strung a slack line across the intersection when the light turned red, and then got on it and juggled swords. 

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.

Gualaceo, Chordeleg, and Sigsig

Wednesday we decided to take a whirlwind self-guided tour to 3 smaller towns over 1 hour from Cuenca. I guess everyone knows what that means; yep, back to our favorite bus terminal, Terminal Terrestre.  You know, I guess like everything, the more you do something the more comfortable you get doing it. Our stress level at the terminal seemed to be quite a bit less today than the previous days. We went in, looked at the boarding location of the bus going to Gualaceo, went to that turnstile, paid our dime to get past the turnstile, then hopped on the bus. Just like yesterday, no ticket needed, just pay the bus driver when we got to our location. Smooth as silk.

Made it to Gualaceo, walked along a nice riverfront trail and along a few streets in the city. We walked across a 1 lane wooden bridge that was pretty rickety, but it was still in use for vehicles. There were cracks in the bridge’s boards that allowed us to see the river below us. Needless to say, Lisa was a little stressed about walking across this bridge. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get her back across the river to catch our bus to the next town, but she grudgingly and carefully came back across the bridge. We went to Terminal Terrestre in Gualaceo, not near as big as the terminal in Cuenca, and hopped on a local bus called Chordeleg Express and went to our next town. There were only about 6 people on this bus.

We got off in Chordeleg, which is quite a bit smaller and the air was cleaner than Gualaceo.  Again we paid the bus driver when we got to our destination. We thoroughly enjoyed walking around the town and taking some photos. I got bold and asked an older couple, in Spanish, where the bus stop to catch a bus to Sisig was. IT WORKED, they understood me; but, as always happens, when they gave me directions in Spanish, I didn’t understand a word. I really need to work on listening comprehension. Fortunately, their hand signals and gestures they made while telling me directions was good enough to get us to the bus stop. We made it to the bus stop and sat with a young mother and her 3 year old son for about 5 minutes. We attempted some casual conversation with them in Spanish. The young lady confirmed that we were at the correct bus stop for the bus to Sigsig. A bus pulled up and she and her son got up to board it, and she looked back at us and said something we could not understand, but knew from her tone that she was telling us that that bus was not the Sigsig bus. There are nice folks everywhere.

We waited about 25 minutes before a bus to Sigsig pulled up and stopped. This bus had a driver and money collector on board. The money collector sits up front with the driver, and when you get near your destination, he walks down the bus’s aisle and collects the fare from the riders. When the bus stopped at our stop, the money collector jumped off and asked us, “Sigsig?” and we said yes. He knew enough English to tell us “Welcome aboard.”  We got on the bus, and there were not 2 available seats next to each other, so Lisa sat in the front row with an older lady, and I sat in the row behind her next to a young female who seemed to be petrified sitting next to an old gringo.  After a couple of stops, enough folks had gotten off the bus that there were 2 seats available next to each other right beside the row Lisa was sitting in, so I tapped her on the head and told her we could move to that row and sit next to each other. Well, I guess she had found her a better bus riding partner cause she said, “I’m good.”  So we did not change seats, and, bless her heart, the petrified young girl had to put up with me for several more miles. (This is Lisa— I didn’t want to move because I could see much better on the front seat. But as we were going around many twists and turns and there was a very deep ravine beside us, the lady next to me did the sign of the cross. I thought, well, that’s interesting. I wonder if she travels that way often.)

We made it to Sigsig, which is another nice small town. We walked around the town and took some photos. We ate lunch and then headed back to the bus terminal to catch a bus back to Cuenca.

These pics are of a church and cemetery.

When we were about a block away from the terminal, we saw a bus pulling out of the terminal, but it stopped with the front of the bus in the road. We continued our leisurely pace, and when we got within about 10 yards of the bus, the money collector looked at us and said, “Cuenca?”  We shook our heads yes and hurried and got on the bus. That bus was PACKED with people. There were no seats available, and no room to stand in the aisles. The money collector made a young male get up off a platform that is beside the steps to get on the bus so Lisa could sit there. I stood on about the 2nd and 3rd steps of the bus with the door open most of the time while I stood there. Lisa grabbed my leg to help make sure I didn’t fall out of the bus. So picture this, in pretty much the cockpit of the bus, there was the driver, money collector, a young male rider, me and Lisa. I ain’t gonna lie, I kinda enjoyed riding up there.

Well, all good things must come to an end and after several miles and several stops, enough people got off the bus to clear up seats so everyone could sit in the passenger area of the bus. We went from riding in the very front of the bus to riding in the very back seats of the bus. We kept our seats in the back of the bus the rest of the way to Cuenca.

A little tidbit on bus travel in Ecuador. On some of the busses we have ridden on, the bus driver has played Latino music. You know, I have found that the playing of that type music adds quite a bit to the experience. You are on a bus that has been tricked out with stickers, posters, curtains, and other nick-nacks, going around blind curves and up and down steep hills and mountains in the Andes, all the while listening to some upbeat Latino music that you don’t know a word they are saying, but really enjoying and getting into the whole experience. It just hasn’t had the same feel when we have been on busses that did not have the music. I have enjoyed the Latino music on the busses so much I have thought about listening to it at home, but without the bus and the Andes, I just don’t think it would be the same.

 On our way back from the bus station, I saw this and had to get a pic. There are a lot of people that have carts that sell anything you may want, coats, sweat pants, cigarettes, fruit, etc., and in this particular cart, there was the sweetest little face riding underneath this cart. We have seen many pre-school children hanging out at the stores and around carts.