You loved Faces of Cuenca, well here’s our sequel: The Places of Cuenca!
These are a few of the spots that amazed, awed, inspired and made us smile here in Cuenca. (Warning: lots of photos here, along with links to a few videos at the end)
Crazy-ornate facades
Really interesting, cool, historic architecture all over the city (this is, I think, City Hall which has art shows in the lobby).
Seems like if you look up you are nearly assured of seeing something like this!
The Rio Tomebamba that we walked along almost every day with Doyle the dog.
And she’s buying a stairway to….??? (seriously, these didn’t go anywhere but they are pretty cool)
So, guys, we’ve got all these pallets…what should we do with ’em? Oh! I know!
“Panedarias” (bakeries) are on every block. No matter where you walk it smells like fresh baked bread. Aaron LOVES the pan so we stop every day to stock up. This was the only one we came across with a brick oven.
Blue domes of the “New” Cathedral – they blend so beautifully when you find the right sky.
Historic churches, like panadarias, are pretty much everywhere. Once we couldn’t see a church anywhere and we thought maybe we crossed the city line.
Know what this is? Churches build these triangles into the street corners of the church and paint crosses on them to deter people from peeing right there on the church. Nice, eh? Probably wouldn’t work so well in non-Catholic countries!
The Catholic cemetary here is HUGE (and a bit creepy), but we liked seeing the small Jewish area of about 12 graves. Here’s the gate to get in…
Check out this garden outside the Pumapongo Museum. It’s the fanciest P-Patch I’ve ever seen! It’s actually based on an ancient Inca planting system.
A typical nice neighborhood in Cuenca. All the homes have gates, electric fences, alarms, razor wire…no, really.
Amazing masonry…we think the round pieces are old milling stones.
Spectacular scenery that never ends.
A few really dramatic sunsets.
The view from horseback in nearby Tarqui.
It may be showing it’s age a bit… probably built in the late 1700’s!
Traditional healers (curanderos) in the middle of the city. There were long lines to have children cleansed.
If you are curious about what the traditional healing ceremony is like we have a video (Note: there’s rather long sections with flower hitting and with egg rubbing, so feel free to jump ahead if you like…but don’t miss the final minute or two! Trust us!). Judith is a wonderful ex-pat living here who showed us around town for a morning – sooo nice to meet folks who are happy to share about their city. Thank you for being our subject!
View of Cuenca from a mirador (viewpoint) by a, you guessed it, church.
Panama hat factory/museum in the heart of Cuenca. Yes, Panama hats ARE actually made in Ecuador, not Panama.
This particular shop has the basic forms woven in another town and brought in for them to do final shaping and finishing.
Would you like a brim with that hat? Yes? Allow me!
Surprisingly “Panama” hats are made right here in Ecuador. Seriously! And all sorts of locals will, understandably, tell you so! Here’s some of what we learned about hat making (from the hat-making museum on Calle Larga, if you’re curious):
Video #1 about forming the hat.
Video #2 about cutting the hat to size.
And there you go – a little more about the sights of Cuenca. We’ve still got a number of blogs in mind, so don’t think you’ve seen the last of this fascinating area!
Am enjoying your trip. Thank you for taking time to share it.
Lisa’s mom! Sharing makes it twice as fun since we get to enjoy it all over again as we write. Thanks for following along!
So educational, loving living it with you ! Thank you so much for all the pictures, videos and stories !
Our pleasure! Count on us for a lot more of the same! 🙂
Nice pictures! What a pretty place!
We thought so, too!!!
I have a friend whose dad was a miller. Yes, you are right. The round stones in the wall are old mill stones. The pattern of the grooves is the giveaway. You have obviously fallen in love with this town. It’s obvious why. Thanks for introducing us.
Our pleasure! It was indeed wonderful…as was Saraguro which we just visited. Can’t wait to get started on the blog entries for it!
Wow!! Such a cool place. Just did a quick web search and learned that Cuenca is a World Heritage Site–easy to see why. Thank you so much for expanding our worlds!!! Best–Suanne.
The World Heritage Site downtown was pretty amazing indeed! Such history! And just wait, we’ve got lots more world-expanding to do. 🙂
Thanks for sharing, looks like a beautiful place. Love the pictures!
Glad you liked ’em!