Guayaquil, Ecuador

So I'm pretty much a mountain dweller these days. Life in the Andes is good but the altitude and the cold weather do get a bit tiresome. After a month in Cuenca we've come out to check out the coast of Ecuador...and so far we've experienced a couple of rude shocks.

1. The accent...actually it's not the accent. These humans speak three times as fast as my Andino friends and their language is barely recognisable as Spanish!

2. The men....look like they've never seen a woman before. I've racked up over 50 countries now and I've never been looked at like that. We were looked up and down, followed by two men in a car and then some crazy guy exposed his penis to us which was a first for me (not the penis obviously).

Anyway, that aside it's warm now! And there's plenty of seafood to eat :)

Since we felt fairly unsafe and it's ridiculously (and unecessarily) expensive in Guayaquil we decided just to stay a couple of days. We still managed to take in the main sites of Las Peñas...

The boardwalk along the river (Malecon 2000). 

And last but not least the main plaza in Guayaquil which is full of Iguanas and irritating children (not pictured). 

Oh and the other interesting thing going on here was parking. Basically you park your car and leave the hand brake off. Some guy is in charge of moving all the cars as required. I'm still not sure how this is efficient and we witnessed him crash three cars together, but it was quite amusing to watch whilst enjoying breakfast a few floors above.

Salsa - Gato Alado Project

So since we're in South America we decided to take salsa classes (well Spaghetti-O did and I decided I should join in too). We took a few weeks worth of classes in Cuenca along with our adopted Australian son Brad. 

Apparently it's frowned upon to dance solo here so to avoid looking like complete gringos we're trying to learn to dance. Problem is, there's heaps of different styles and everyone seems to dance a different one! But for now the basics are helping. 

We took the classes at a place called the Gato Alado Project in Cuenca which was great. Our instructor Julio was awesome and at the end we were given a certificate so now I can note on my CV that I'm qualified at basic L.A style salsa. Winning! Here's a picture of the happy salsa dancers. 

Oh and they have five cats so obviously I need to post a photo. I only got to meet a few of them on the last night but they are super cute. 

Panama Hats.... Aren't from Panama

Today we paid a visit to the Barrancos Panama Hat Museum in Cuenca. The hats in South America are amazing. The variety is incredible and you can usually tell where people are from based solely on their hat. 

In Bolivia we also visited a hat factory making hats from wool. They made 90 styles of which only one style is exported and the rest are for the Bolivians. Similarly hats are very important here in Ecuador,  particularly the Panama Hat for which they (not Panama) are famous.  

The Panama hat is basically made from weaving leaves of a palm like tree that have been treated. This is done by hand! A good hat takes three months to make and the kind I'm likely to buy takes a day. I should mention that the good ones cost hundreds of dollars!

This is how the process starts basically from the top down to the brim. 

Once the hat is in its basic form it looks like this...

After this they use moulds and heat to press a shape into the hat. There's also various processes for basically bashing the hat for a long time to make it softer. After this a cute little Ecuadorian woman sews a label into it and here you have it...the finished products.

El Chorro Waterfall Hike

You won't know this but Cuenca is a haven for retirees from the U.S. who either don't have enough social security to cover their retirement or simply move to Ecuador for the weather and lower cost of health care and living in general. 

Spaghetti O and I have been going to some Spanish language meet ups and met a lot of retirees! Anyway we met a couple who aren't the usual retiree stereotype and they kindly invited to take us on a hike to a waterfall in the nearby town of Giron.

The scenery around here is just gorgeous and Giron was no exception. And every field was filled with baby cows! So cute.

I don't really consider myself much of a hiker (particularly not at altitude where I can barely climb the five flights of stairs to out apartment without hyperventilating) so when our companions told us we'd be climbing up 1000 ft to the waterfall I felt like they might be regretting inviting us. 

At the start we had a local guy walking with us. I asked if he'd lived there his whole life which he had. We chatted for a while before he got sick of how slow we were moving and overtook us. I asked how old he was which I knew was going to make me feel embarrassed and yes, he was 70. 

Did I mention I'm terrified of cows. I'm sure you can't tell. 

I'm not actually sure how long it took us but we finally made it to the top.

And we got back down in time for a late lunch of local trout. Perfecto!

Amaru Zoologico Bioparque

We decided to spend an afternoon out at Amaru Zoologico Bioparque in Cuenca. After reading the Trip Advisor reviews of how this is more like a trip to the jungle than a visit to a zoo we were prepared for anything. Basically it's an animal sanctuary built on the side of a hill. Not sure why they thought this was a good idea, but there you have it. No wheelchair access here....

Some of the enclosures are so realistic that we were unable to spot the animals. Here are the Andean bears enjoying life...

This was in stark contrast to a small zoo we visited in Ica, Peru where we saw two of the most beautiful big cats living in concrete boxes.

I think my favourite animal at Amaru was the ocelot. We saw one playing with a big hunk of meat just like a all kitty cats would. At one point he left the meat and ran away before waiting and pouncing back onto it. So cute. 

The park also had a lot of overhead tunnels which we thought were for the monkeys. Next minute we look up and see an ocelot walking through the trees!

There was also other tunnels set up for many other types of monkeys. I thought it was a great idea.  

We also got to have a close encounter with a capybara which turns out to be the friendliest creature ever. I think he just wanted a cuddle. They are such strange animals and they make a weird purring noise too. 

There were also heaps of other amazing creatures including the Andean Condor which has the second largest wingspan of all living birds (apparently the albatross wins). 

Overall a great way to spend an afternoon but I'll just have to rely on google image search for sighting the Andean bear. 

Shrunken Heads

So we went to the Pumapungo Museum here in Cuenca.  I was nearly ejected by the security guard multiple times for overstepping the tape (or remnants of should I say) in front of the displays. Besides the excitement of my brush with security we also got to see some shrunken heads! For reference they were about the size of a large mango. 

For further information on head shrinking (now illegal in Ecuador and presumably most other countries in the world) please consult the fine source of knowledge, Wikipedia (below) and for your viewing pleasure please enjoy these photos of the heads on display in the Museo Pumapungo.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrunken_head

Sunday Day Trip (Galaceo & Chordeleg)

Hola amigos!

Today was Sunday which seems to be a weird day in South America. Having a Sunday lunch is a popular thing to do but usually this happens in different locations to during the week. Typically in outlying areas or towns. So we left sleepy Cuenca for a 45 minute bus trip out to Galaceo for some lunch.

The town was pumping when we arrived and people were standing on the bus out there. I had a prime seat next to the driver and Spaghetti O sat next to some Ecuadorian dude who complained about her constantly in Spanish. Haha. Unlike me she's polite and kept her mouth shut about understanding.

We headed straight to the market and did a recce before deciding it was time to eat some more pig. 

In South America if you find the 'pig (insert any product here) section' then typically you'll find at least 10 vendors selling the exact same thing for the exact same price. The pigs didn't disappoint.... At least 20 in this case.

For $5 (and in Ecuador they actually use US dollars - don't talk to me about the exchange rate!) we got this...

Should have inserted something for scale (lesson for next time). Actually the sausage looking thing was full of herby rice. It was delicious. 

After looking at everyone consuming strange drinks I decided that even though I knew they would all be unbelievably sweet we would still need to try them. I then purchased the following:

 

Tinto: sweet coffee flavoured beverage

Morocho: rice pudding type drink with cracked corn, raisins, milk and spices

As suspected we were unable to finish either but I feel like that 80 cents enhanced my understanding of Ecuadorian culture.

We then got on another bus to Chordeleg which is a town famous for making silver jewellery. 

Instead of the jewellery we just ate more food. In this case two wafer (oblea) circles sandwiched together over a filling. I requested the best combination which was apparently 'todos (all)', consisting of Manjar Blanco (like dulce de leche or caramel), chocolate sauce, mulberry sauce and fresh grated coconut. Could not complain. The flavour profile was sophisticated and totally on point. Hah. 

Until next meal.

Laura