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.

Cascade El Chorro

After our hike in Cajas National Park on Thursday, we took it easy and just strolled around Cuenca seeing sights around the city. It seemed almost like we were in the U.S. on Saturday because “gringos” seemed to be on every street corner. We met a couple of women walking down the street that were from the U.S.  One had lived in Cuenca for 5 years, and the other for 2 and 1/2 years.  Every high rise building we see we wonder if it is part of “gringolandia,” or where a lot of expats live.

On Monday, we decided to take a trip to see Cascada El Chorro (El Chorro waterfalls). It is near Giron, which is about a 1 hour bus ride from Cuenca. So off we go again to Terminal Terrestre, the main bus terminal in Cuenca. Figuring we needed to purchase a bus ticket to Giron before boarding the bus, we began our search for the vending booth from which we needed to purchase our tickets.   We had to purchase bus tickets prior to boarding the bus on the 2 previous occasions that we have taken a bus. After a short, futile search to find the appropriate vendor, we stopped a security officer and said “Giron” with a lost, puzzled look on our faces. He took us to a turnstile where you have to deposit a dime to go through to board a bus.  We tried to explain to him we were not ready to enter the boarding area yet as we did not have a ticket, and we need to know where to buy a ticket. He then got a worker at the turnstile involved in our discussion, and the worker seemed to understand some English. He was able to relate to us that we don’t need a ticket to go to Giron, we just need to board the bus, and the driver would collect the fee, which was $1 per person. Once again, about the time we think we are starting to understand the process, a curve is thrown at us.

We made it to Giron, and the waterfall is about 4 miles, up a steep hill, from the city.  In Ecuador, there are white trucks with a green stripe on them, and we were told these are rural taxis. As soon as we got off the bus in Giron, we saw one sitting at an intersection. He had his window rolled down and looked at us and said “El Chorro?”  We said yes, and again jumped into a vehicle with a stranger who could speak no English.  We are really starting to get good at that. He took us to the entrance of the waterfalls.

El Chorro falls is a 3-tiered waterfall. We walked about 5 minutes up a short, steep trail to get to the base of the lower falls. The waterfall and surrounding were magnificent and beautiful. It is also possible to hike about another 1.5 hours to get to an upper falls, but with the luck we had at Cajas, we decided not to go any further than the lower falls. Below are some pics of the falls and the surrounding area.

Also, we were able to walk across this swinging bridge.

Just kidding. Most of you know how funny that really is, especially for Lisa.

However, we did decide to hike the 4 miles back down to Giron. We’re glad we hiked down because the scenery was beautiful, and we would not have been able to enjoy it as much in a vehicle. Below are some pics of the scenery and some flowers we got to enjoy.

Our hike took us through a neat little community named Chorro del Carmen. Pics of a church and mission below.

When we got back to Giron there just happened to be a bus pulling up to the bus stop that was heading back to Cuenca, so we hopped on it with no waiting. As Lisa has pointed out several times on this trip, I got lucky again. My job for this trip was to plan some things we could do while here. Well, me not being much of a planner, I really did not have anything planned beforehand. I’m more of the type that likes to leave the slate clean and just “wing it” each day. So far on this trip, I have been lucky and the things that we have decided to do on the spur of the moment have gone smoothly.

We made it back to Cuenca, both hungry. We set out walking from the main bus terminal back to our apartment eyeing every restaurant as we passed. We now tend to prefer the little mom and pop restaurants that have no more than 10 tables in it. We spotted one today that did not have a name on the outside. However, it had a sign out front that showed $2.50 “Almuerzos,” and there were people inside eating. That’s our winning combination, so we ate there. The food was very good, and the drink that was served with our meal tasted similar to tea. I asked the waitress if it was tea (yep, did it in Spanish), and she said no. She then proceeded to tell me in Spanish what the drink was, and out came my deer in the headlights look - no idea what she said. She then got a young girl to come out of the kitchen who could speak a little English, and she told me it was a traditional drink from the Amazon. I still have no idea what we drank today, but it was good. No hallucinations yet🤪

Cajas National Park

On Thursday, we decided to go to Cajas National Park to do some hiking. It is always on the top things to do while in Cuenca. The park is about 45 minutes away.  To get there, we went to Cuenca’s main bus terminal and hopped on a bus heading toward Guayaquil. Finding the correct place to purchase tickets was a huge accomplishment. We even went to the bus terminal the day before to make sure we knew what we were doing and even took pictures of the times that the bus left. Lo and behold, Anthony did more studying about the bus that night on google, and it STILL was the incorrect place to buy tickets. You have to realize there are many many different vendors with busses going to different or same places. Not knowing the language made it difficult asking even which vendor to go to.

Thankfully, Anthony googled and found instructions on what vendor to look for, and we got on the correct bus. We got off at the Toreadora Ranger Station inside the park.  We knew we would be in for a challenge because the altitude at the ranger station was over 12,000 feet.

Lisa had read on the internet that Route 1 was the easiest and most scenic route at the park. The ranger also recommended that we hike Route 1.  He stated it was an easy, well marked route; just follow the pink markings on the trail. So off we go. It did not take long for us to realize that “easy” is a subjective term. We found ourselves walking on some fairly steep terrain that was slick from recent rains.  The trail was about 4 miles long with several ups and downs. And for Lisa, down is literal as she slipped and fell SEVERAL times. (This is Lisa, and I was even questioning the decision to hike in this park about halfway through with the altitude challenge,  the slick steep trails and how many times I cut my hands and started bleeding from grabbing ahold of plants that was keeping me from sliding so much. Believe me, there were tears. 😢)

We made it to a camping area that had 3 different trails converge on it, with at least 2 of those trails having pink markings. So we thought, which pink trail should we take?  Thank goodness Lisa had downloaded the maps.me app on her phone because it actually had the trails on it and an arrow indicating where we were and which direction we were heading. Without that app, we would have definitely headed in the wrong direction and ended up a far piece from the ranger station.

We made it back to the ranger station pretty tired from our walk. Now we had to stand at a bus stop and try to flag down a bus heading back to Cuenca. While we were standing at the bus stop, a small car pulled out of the ranger station parking lot and stopped on the road. We thought they were stopping to offer us a ride, so we started walking toward their car. A couple of young Hispanic males got out of the car and took some pictures of the park sign. They eventually looked over at us and said, “Cuenca?”, and we excitedly said yes. We jumped in the backseat of the car, and these nice young men who spoke no English gave us a ride back to Cuenca. For those of you that know Lisa, you know she must have been tired and desperate for her to accept a ride from non-English speaking male strangers in a foreign country. These are the pics I took while riding with them.

We made it back to town, but the falls were still not over for Lisa for the day. The sidewalks in Cuenca are very rough and uneven. I was walking in front of Lisa and all of a sudden I hear a grunt and a thump behind me. I look back and Lisa is laying belly down on the sidewalk. I help her up and she has a couple of bloody knuckles and a scraped knee. We made it the rest of the way to our apartment without incident. She was glad this day is over.