Cuenca Spring Break

In addition to the week off in February, Colegio Menor takes a spring break the week prior to the Easter holiday.  Javier and I were looking forward to hosting my parents for the later part of the week, but decided we had time to slip in a quick trip the weekend before their arrival.  We hadn't been to Cuenca yet, the other colonial city in Ecuador and top destination for US retired expats.  It was a cheap and easy flight that gave us most of Saturday, Sunday and Monday to explore the city.  We started with lunch (duh) and then walked around town a bit.  We only ventured around old town, but this section of the city is super walkable.

There is just something about Ecuadorian streets that look so Ecuadorian to me now....do you see it?

Our room wasn't ready so we wandered down to the river and Paseo 3 de Noviembre.  It was such a beautiful day that many people were sitting along the river or out walking around.

We walked to Puente Roto to see the washed away bridge and check out the art displays that are protected underneath. (The art options were slim pickings on the day we arrived.)

We continued walking down Calle Larga to the Ruinas de Todos Santos.  We didn't take the tour or anything, but took a quick look and some pictures.

Since we were on vacation and had nowhere to be and all day to get there, we decided to stop by a little coffee shop, Puro Cafe,  I had heard was good.  Look at my cute husband, patiently tolerating my photojournalism. 

In addition to having delicious coffee, the little cafe had an amazing view.  We thoroughly enjoyed our lattes and view and the chocolate mousse we ordered too!

After coffee, we headed back to check into our room.  We splurged on a nice hotel, Hotel El Conquistador, for the weekend.  Here is our lovely sitting room (that was used mostly to house our muddy hiking attire after a visit to Cajas National Park).

Huge bathroom, but it didn't have a door....that's right...just blended into the rest of the room....

Fancy digs

And here was the lovely view we had outside of our room.  Grandma Pat wisely advised us to take pictures looking out the windows of our homes and vacation spots, something we have tried to do ever since.  It's a great idea for remembering your views and the sights you see looking out the window.

We took a quick walk through Parque Calderon to see the Catedral de la Inmaculada  before heading out to dinner.

ready for our big dinner out

 

Tiestos had been recommended by more than one friend, so we headed there for dinner.  We ordered their steak dinner for two which included a parade of steak medalions each with a new seasoning or sauce.  It was delicious and disgusting....it even included this lovely dessert....which we also ate.

The next day we took a bus to Cajas National Park for some hiking.  Cajas is located up in the mountains around Cuenca so we ended up buying some warmer attire for the trek (a.k.a. Javs' hat and the alpaca sweater I'm sporting).

We were dropped off at Laguna Toreadora and checked in at the information center.  The guide took one look at us and judged, but suggested the pink route if we were determined to do some hiking.

Even from the information center....the view was beautiful.

We found Route 1 and set out.

Did I mention how beautiful....

We had read about the Polylepis trees that created forests in these high altitudes and were looking forward to walking through one.  Our travel book described entering the forests as 'entering a Brothers Grimm fairy tale.'  Into the woods...

It's so scary!!!!

here is a look at the dense forest....it was crazy how thick it was

conquering the forest

but we made it through and found Lagos Unidos on the other side where we parked to rest and snack a bit 

beautiful waterfalls and breathtaking views 

on our hike back we met some friends

It was very misty on our hike, but I think the high altitude probably means the park is constantly in the clouds.  I would never call us hikers, but we're usually up for one when it's the thing to do.  This was certainly one of our hardest....mostly because of the muddy terrain.  We were both constantly slipping and sloshing about and were completely covered in mud by the end.  I took a shower and a bath when we got back....

I had to snap this picture on the way to dinner because it was so beautiful....as usual, the photo doesn't do it justice...
Cuenca has many, many churches (if the Spanish do nothing else when they colonize....) but this one is called Church of Santo Domingo

On our last day in Cuenca, I was looking forward to visiting the Museo del Banco Central 'Pumapungo', but when we arrived...we learned that it was closed on Mondays.  But the Archaeological Park around the back is always open, so we walked around a bit.  The park included ruins of buildings believed to be part of the old Incan city.  The museum has also planted an extensive garden that they believe duplicates the one that might have been part of the original city.

terraced ruins

After the park, we headed to the Museo del Sombrero de Paja Toquilla to check out some traditional panama hats.  The museum continues to make hats today in addition to selling a number of styles in their store.  This machine is heating the straw to shape the brim of the hat.

These ladies were adding color and embroidery to the hats.

We each tried a few on, but apparently panama hats are not our style...regardless...the hat museum was a hit.

We spent much of the rest of the day hopping from church to church.  This is the Church of El Carmen de la Asuncion where a flower market is held daily.  The flowers were beautiful!

We also paid a few dollars to enter the Old Cathedral or El Sagrario.  It was pretty, but I always have trouble reading the Spanish history cards....

Then we crossed Parque Calderon to the New Cathedral or Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepcion.  Ecuadorians poke a bit of fun at the Cathedral because it was supposed to have two tall bell towers that couldn't be built because of a design error that wouldn't allow the building to support their weight.  Now the Cathedral just has two stumpy towers...but a gorgeous inside!

In the afternoon, we took a taxi to the Mirador de Turi, for a great view of the city.  It was a beautiful day and we were able to see way off into the distant mountains.

This is the white Church of Turi.  When we peaked inside a nun was holding class for a group of small kiddos.

it was a gorgeous view

We had heard from a fellow teacher that a pharmacy right off of Parque Calderon sold a special soda that could cure hangovers.  Even without a hangover, we sought it out to see what such a miracle elixir might look like...apparently it's pink 

We both loved Cuenca.  It was super quaint and beautiful.  We couldn't believe how much English we heard spoken on the streets (something we never hear in Quito).  We even had menus in English.  It's obvious that the expat community has influenced Cuenca in a way we haven't seen in Quito.  But the influence also extended to prices....everything was more expensive (taxi rides, food, everything...).  Regardless, we agreed that it is a city we'd like to see again before we leave Ecuador for good.  There are some good day trips to take outside of the city for the next time around too.

one more shot of Cuenca while we waited for the taxi.

Ladies Weekend: Papallacta

In March, I was invited to Papallacta for a ladies weekend with some other teachers from school.  The timing worked out well....it was mid-March Madness....and since I had never been to Papallacta, I quickly accepted the invite.  Papallacta is a small town just outside the Cayambe Ecological Reserve with a higher altitude than Quito.  It's amazing to me that all of Ecuador is roughly the size of the state of Nevada, but traveling to new places often takes a long time as the Andes continually get in our way.  Papallacta is close, but still took us over an hour to climb up into the hills to get there.  I had heard about the town before and knew it was famous for its natural hot springs (both public and private baths) but not much else.  It's always been described as the perfect couples getaway or ladies weekend retreat.  Our little foursome splurged on the nice resort's cabin, that could sleep up to 6 and had its own fireplace.  (Papallacta gets very cold in the evenings!)

This is Wara and Christina, unpacking in our little cabin (the fireplace is behind Wara on the left)

The cabin was very nice and included 6 single beds.

We opted for the 4 beds in the attic so that we could have a little sleepover.

Because we were staying at Termas (it's like the nice hotel in Papallacta) we had access to all of their private baths.  Each of the baths is a different temperature and they have freezing ones available if you want to do the hot to cold to hot thing.

We tried a few out during our weekend, but were happy to stay close to our wine supply in our cabin.

This is the outside of our cabin...you can see how close it was to hop in and soak in the perfectly hot water.

We had a really amazing and relaxing time.  We were there about 24 hours and spent most of them soaking in the steaming pools.  I can see why it's suggested as a couples' getaway; the scenery is quite romantic and there isn't much else to do besides sit in hot water and chat.  It was really nice to go with the ladies though and get to know each of them a bit better.

Buenos Aires Part III

We started our Sunday with a trip to the San Telmo market.  We had heard it was worth stopping by, but we couldn't believe the size of it in reality.  There were a large number of booths in the plaza, but the sellers extended down the road in either direction for blocks and blocks and blocks.  The streets had more original work being sold,while the inner plaza resembled an odd sort of flea market, with each person selling their collectables.  None of us found anything worth buying, but it was interesting to walk around a bit.

Emma and Bobby scoping out some art on the streets of San Telmo

Here is just one example of the old collectables we saw...records and record players.  They were blasting out music as we walked by!

We also wandered into a warehouse type building that had even more sellers to browse.  Javier and I checked out a fruit stand to see if we found some familiar items from Ecuador, but were surprised at how different the options were.

Emma wanted to hit up some museums and we thought we were due for a bit of culture so we walked from the market to MACBA, a contemporary art museum.  It was pretty small and had an interesting design.  I thought some of the pieces were thought provoking, but others I simply didn't understand.

I thought this one was cool...it was called 'A Week' or 'Week's Schedule' or something like that...

us....getting cultured

MACBA was so small, so we also popped in next door to the Museum of Modern Art.  We gave Emma a bit of a hard time about nerding out in the museums, but we saw some interesting exhibits and it was nice to get out of the sun for a bit.

Javier....getting cultured

The Buenos Aires soccer team, Boca Juniors, had their first game of the season Sunday afternoon.  We looked into getting tickets, but they were ridiculously expensive.  (We even asked our airbnb host if he could help us out and he couldn't find cheaper options either).  But we decided it would be fun to walk around the stadium pregame and maybe find a bar to slip into to watch.

As we walked towards the stadium we started seeing fans decked out in their Boca Junios' blue and yellow!!

Here we are outside of the stadium.  There were tons of fans milling around...mostly playing pick up soccer games of their own actually.  There were also a ton of police officers (we assume because of the rowdy reputation of Argentine fans).  Emma and I also noticed that there were not a lot of women around.  It was a bit surprising, since we think of sporting events as couples events if not family affairs....just different I guess.

We were so close to La Boca that we decided to walk through and check out the neighborhood at a slightly slower pace.  (Have you guys noticed that Emma and Javier are sporting their Boca Juniors attire yet?)

These boys...

The brightly painted buildings really do set this harbor neighborhood apart from the rest of the city.

That night we went to dinner and drinks right in our Palermo neighborhood: dinner at Social Paraiso and drinks at the first spot we saw with an outdoor table.  Buenos Aires was an AMAZING city, but it was 100% hanging out with these friends that made this trip the best.  I never wanted to end our evenings cause we were having too much fun catching up.

Drinking beers out of wine glasses.

my friend :)

On our last day we decided to join a free walking tour to hear some history and see some city sights up close.  We started in Plaza del Congreso.  It was easily one of our hottest days, so we spent much of the tour trying to stand in the shade.  But our guide was incredibly energetic and informed.  I would totally suggest taking the tour if you're interested in learning a bit about the history of the city.

Emma and I in front of the Congress building.

The tour walked us down Avenida de Mayo where our guide pointed out this building.  This is the Palacio Barolo 'designed with the cosmology of Dante's Divine Comedy.'  The basement and bottom floor are supposed to represent hell, the middle floors purgatory and floors 15-22 heaven.  It was the tallest building in South America for a while and now operates mostly as office space.  It was certainly eye catching!

This is the famous Cafe Tortoni.  It is one of the oldest coffee shops in Buenos Aires and still operates with the wait staff in old attire and traditional decor inside.  This was the wait just to get in on the Sunday that we walked by.

Here we are at Casa Rosada or the Presidents house.

This is Javier and I outside of the Catedral Metropolitana.  It certainly doesn't look like a traditional Cathedral from the outside.  It looks more like it belongs on the streets of ancient Rome.  Outside there is an eternal flame that is supposed to remind the Argentine people of the struggles they went through to gain their independence (just over my left shoulder).

Inside the Cathedral, General Jose de San Martin is buried and guarded.  He was the Argentine leader of the independence movement against the Spanish in southern South America (with Simon Bolivar leading the movement from the north).

In the afternoon we headed to a big park to do some people watching and drink this wine.  I'll blame it on the plastic bottles we were drinking it out of...but the wine was not delicious so we packed up early to head home and rest before our big dinner out.

I had not bought any souvenirs so Javier and I ran out to a little market in Palermo for me to buy a fun glass bowl to remember Buenos Aires by.  Then we stopped in a little cafe to try two traditional Argentine drinks: the submarino.  It's basically a hot chocolate, but they heat up the milk and give you a full stick of chocolate to stir into it.  FUN!

...and mate te.  This wasn't the traditional way to drink mate, but we got an idea of the flavor....mostly I thought it tasted like herbal tea.

For our last night together, we had a big dinner at La Cabrera planned!  There is much debate about where you can get the best steak in Buenos Aires (because you can get steak everywhere) but the debate almost always includes La Cabrera.  It's so popular that they've actually opened up two locations on neighboring blocks to accommodate their reservations.

The Filars....all dressed up and ready for steak.

Cabezas anxiously awaiting our juicy steaks!

we started with some traditional empanadas, but were encouraged by our waiter not to order too much....he assured us that the steaks and their accompaniments would be plenty of food.

and boy was he right....these are our four ordered steaks and a million little ramekins of sides.  The steaks were SO good!  And we all ate to the point of discomfort.

After dinner we walked to a speakeasy that Javier had found online.  We knew there would be an unmarked door, so finding it was a bit difficult, but after a minor attack by some wild dogs, we were able to find Frank's.  After knocking on the door and providing the correct password, we all crammed into a phone booth and dialed the number as we were directed.  One wall of the booth opened to reveal a swanky bar lined with tables and sofas.  We sat down on a sofa and ordered some fancy drinks.

here are our fancy drinks

round 1 was a huge success 

we branched out a bit on round 2...each trying some fun options that Frank's provided

I believe there had to be some drink trading for round 2...

Either way, the atmosphere made Frank's a must-do on anyone's list for Buenos Aires.  It was such a fun way to spend our last night out when we were all dressed up and out on the town.

It was too hard to say goodbye, so we ended up visiting a few more bars before turning in for our 5:30am taxi pick up.  It was a late night for such an early morning, but worth it to spend those last precious hours with the Filars!  All in all, it was a fabulous trip and so good to see such dearly missed friends!