Ahorita

8-4-11

I decided to travel by myself to Cuenca—the third largest city in Ecuador (the order is Guayaquil, Quito, Cuenca, from largest to smallest). I took the night-bus Sunday night to head 8 hours away from Quito.  Before that, it was a relaxing Sunday where a Frisbee was thrown around in the stadium and afterwards we watched the finals for soccer in Lumbisí.  Of course, pool was played on our way back to our house.  It was a little nerve-racking trying to figure out the bus situation and what not to get to Cuenca, since I was going to be traveling in the dark by myself for hours at a time.  I took a taxi to the huge bus station in Quito where I found the bus I was supposed to take (there were about 7 leaving from that station going to Cuenca anyhow).  This was also a stressful situation because I arrived to the station only 15 minutes before a bus was going to leave.  After standing behind people who were taking forever to buy their tickets, I overheard a man ask if there were anymore tickets for Cuenca.  I heard the dreaded answer- “no”.  Instead of freaking out, I followed the man who had asked the question (because obviously he was going to Cuenca as well) and we ended up getting tickets for another bus company that was leaving “ahorita”, which means “right now”; so we run to where our bus and settle down next to each other.  I didn’t sleep very well on the trip, I think because of nerves, and also I was close to a guy who was snoring pretty loudly (and I think he was the only one snoring).

I arrived in Cuenca at 7 AM on Monday morning; 2 hours earlier than expected. The man who I was sitting next to on the bus helped me get a taxi to my hostel “Cafecito”.  I was showed to my room, which is a big room with two bunkbeds and a single bed- mostly sharing the room with guys.  We share a half bathroom (community showers are available down the hall) that has hot water and great water pressure! I met the only girl in our room (Anita) and she said she was going to eat breakfast that would be served in our hostel, then going to Ingapira—the Incan ruins.  So, we ate breakfast together (with unlimited coffee refills) along with two other guys from our shared room.  It was so nice to have to be forced to meet people in the hostel I was staying in.  I wouldn’t have reached out to these people if I had my own, private room.  We pretty much all clicked right away and those were the people I traveled with to different locations around Cuenca.  I was a little afraid about sharing room with strangers, but those strangers turned out to be great friends.  So, Brandon, Anita and I caught a taxi that would take us to the bus terminal to get on “Transportes Cañar” that would connect us to “Tomba” where we would end up in Ingapirca. The two-hour bus ride was incredible and I fell in love with all of the grassy mountains surrounding me.  Ecuador is such a beautiful country that I still haven’t taken for granted!  The views still take my breath away.  Ingapirca wasn’t as impressive than I had imagined it, however the Incans are pretty incredible building things when their technology wasn’t near as advanced as it is now.  Their precise “measurement” with all of the big boulders being cut and put together in a square-like fashion, without needing anything between them to hold them together is pretty amazing.

After getting back into Cuenca and resting up a bit, the 5 of us from our shared room went to a Colombian restaurant where we could partake of a delicious, authentic meal.  Mine was a thicker-like tortilla (reminded me of pita bread) on the bottom, with shredded chicken and vegetables on top.  After dinner, me and the boys headed to a place called “Cacoa and Canela”, which served home-made hot chocolate.  “Chocolate España” (hot chocolate, cinnamon, and meringue (eggs whites?).  If that wasn’t a busy enough day, we finished the night playing pool together at the “Wunderbar”, located on the river that runs through Cuenca.  

Cuenca, Ecuador

A few of us from the hostel singing Karaoke at a bar next to our hostel

Tuesday morning, after a restful sleep (earplugs are a must!), I woke up early to venture the European-like city of Cuenca.  While I was wandering about, I found a very cute breakfast place called “Cappuccino”. Here, I enjoyed 3 American-style pancakes, scrambled eggs and coffee—all for $2.90!  It was fun touring the city by myself as I was free to do whatever I wanted.  All of the buildings are very old (most of them built in the 1800’s?) and look a lot like what I would think Europe would be like, which I absolutely loved.  The people I saw on the sidewalks looked like they were pretty well-off, dressed in suits; looking professional.  The parks/plazas are beautiful, adorned with flowers, trees, water fountains, etc.  After visiting a few museums, I ate at a vegetarian restaurant, “Govindas”—I fell in love with the place and the food.  The soup was especially impressive; I think it was something like butternut-squash soup, but different because I’m in Ecuador and the word didn’t translate to squash.  The soup came with rice, beans, salad and fruit juice made from melons—all for $2.50! Leaving satisfied, I walked alongside of the river running through the city, in search of a quaint coffee shop. That I found.  “La Tasca” is a cute shop that even has an upper level overlooking the river. Here, I read and drank coffee until later in the afternoon where we met up with the regular group to have dinner together.  It was one of the guys’ birthday, so he chose a restaurant that had a variety of things on the menu; one of which had an American Hamburger on the menu (this included meat, cheese, ham, egg, lettuce and tomato). Afterwards, we looked for a Karaoke place to hang out.  This was lots of fun because there were both locals and people from the US singing along to the stupid Karaoke songs (for example: Britney Spears). Wednesday morning a few of us ate breakfast at a chain called “Coffee Tree” and afterward one of the guys’ from the hostel and I went to Cajas National Park.  This park has over 200 lakes and several trails running up mountains, through swampy areas, and through forests with weird trees. I think this was the first time I’ve ever really been “hiking” and I absolutely loved every moment of it.  The trail that we took was considered “muy difícil”; very difficult.  I would say it was pretty difficult as well, hiking up the mountain, maneuvering our way through the swamp, crossing waterfalls, etc.  It was such a beautiful area; I would recommend this park to anyone interested traveling to Ecuador (Cuenca, in general, I would recommend). For dinner, we went to a nice restaurant where I ordered “Locro de papas”.  This is a traditional dish in Ecuador that is served with avocado and cheese in the soup.  All 6 of us hung out as a group and then moved on to a Karaoke bar once again.  It’s a lot of fun singing Karaoke in Spanish!  After lots of fun, I took a taxi to the bus terminal to take the night bus once again.