One last stop before hitting the beach again.

It was time to go back to city life again after a week of being out in nature. This time I made my way to Cuenca, Ecuador’s third largest city, which is divided over two different altitudes. The higher part of the city is where the old town with the main square and many churches reside, while the lower part is more modern and features a beautiful river promenade.

When I first arrived in Cuenca, it was already around sunset, so I just decided to have a quick walk around the area and find a quick bite to eat. I went down the stairs to the river promenade and checked out the modern section of the city and was amazed by how many people I saw jogging. It was like no other place in South America. This wasn’t the Sunday jogging event or anything, it was just a normal weekday. After crossing the river I found myself in a small public park with a running track, basketball courts, exercise equipment, a capoeira group and full of people exercising. And although it was like a public sports club, it was clean, in good condition and everyone was just enjoying their time; Teens, Kids, Young Professionals and even whole Families were there playing sports. It was really motivating to see.

Cuenca is famous for two main Cathedrals with blue towers and domes (it is not so usual for a Cathedral to have domes). One of the best things about this city is that it is not very touristic, and while there aren’t many attractions, it gives a very authentic impression of what modern day ecuadorian life is like.

The nearest major tourist attraction from Cuenca is a UNESCO world heritage site called Ingapirca and it’s the Northernmost significant Ruins of the Inca Empire. While it wasn’t as impressive as Machu Picchu of course, it was still impressive that it was on the famous Inca trail, which are two trade highways the Inca empire built that went through Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and as far north as Colombia!!

It was the second time that a tour was included in the ticket price and I am really starting to like this idea, because it also controls the flow of people through the ruins somehow, which is great if you want to take photos without people in them 😛

On the last day, I checked out the local market and tried my luck with some fresh shrimp to cook at the hostel and discovered that they have a very special measurement unit there. It’s called “Livre” and it’s basically 450grams. Don’t really know why they have it but I added it to my limited spanish vocabulary anyways hehehe… Oh and the shrimps were really tasty 😉

The colors of the sky with the crescent clearly visible and the mountains in the background was a very nice welcome when I arrived to Cuenca.

Here you can see the stairs leading to the lower part of the city.

The capoeira group practicing in the park.

Cuenca’s famous blue domes Cathedtral.

There was a photo exhibit in the main square in front of the Cathedral, showing some of the first photos taken with some of the people from the indigenous tribes in the area. These were some school kids from back then.

While walking through the city, there was a woman was kicking out her husband or boy friend, who can be seen standing calmly in the balcony hehehe

When the Incas came here, there was already a tribe called “Cañari”, which they couldn’t defeat. So they decided to marry them and slowly conquer them peacefully.

The Temple of the Sun, where the sun shines through the door way on the first days of spring and fall to mark the start of planting and harvesting seasons.