Cuance is a beautiful city with lots of colonial buildings, and little balcanies everywhere. 
Cuenca is no different. The great faces and hats and colorful outfits paint the streets with life. We needed to walk to the bus station to get our tickets for our voyage tomorrow to Banos, and our route led us right by the street market as it was being set up. Ladies walking in from all directions brought their wares to the market. Fruits and vegetables were quickly lining the sidewalks on both sides of the street. We walked past them to the station for our tickets.
Next to the station is the Homero Ortega Museum which is the Museum of the Panama hat which is actually from Ecuador and not Panama.
The museum has great displays and is very informative. They also have hats for sale at the end – imagine that- and I have to say that a couple of them looked pretty good on us. I guess we won’t completely wait until the market in Octalvo next Saturday to do our shopping.
We walked back through the now bustling market and the camera shutter was clicking away. The great faces and hats are too much for me. I have to shoot them.
After we got our purchases back safely we headed to the main square for a 1.75 hour open top bus tour of the city in Spanish. Cuenca is a very pretty place and it seems to be a manageable place as well. We have only been here for the weekend so it may be a little busier during the work week.
After the tour we made our way to Pizzaria Roma for lunch. We had a veggie pizza and homemade gnocchi in a marinara sauce that was world class stuff. The owner said he uses “yellow” potatoes so I’m thinking Yukon golds the next time I make gnocchi.
While we were there we were approached by 2 different x-pats, one from Hawaii and another from Arizona. Anyone who travels outside of the US - particularly in Mexico and other Latin America countries has met a crazy ex-patriot. The first was urging us to get out of the US while the getting is good. He was a one man sales show for Ecuador and Cuenca in particular. He had a couple of pretty good conspiracy theories that we patiently listened to until he needed to go. The second guy was even worse than the first. Did you know that the new full body scanners they plan to employ at the airports are 6 times worse than an x-ray? If you didn’t know that then you are probably one of those “people who sit in front of the TV clueless to the fact that Homeland Security bought 5 or 6 truck mounted x-ray machines and they are x-raying people’s houses.” I know I didn’t know about either. It’s just lucky we ran into those guys. Whew!
Tomorrow we are off for Banos which is by an active volcano and has many hot springs and lots of hiking. We get 3 nights there and then off to Quito for our last 3 nights before returning home. Man time really does fly when you’re having fun…..
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