Cuenca, Ecuador by Kev

13.10.2025. Today we're off to the bus station, so we got up early and grabbed a taxi. Pretty straightforward so far. Walked into this massive terminal and found… empty booths. Well not all of them were empty thankfully. Unfortunately there was only one company selling tickets to Cuenca and the first bus left at 6:30 this morning. Ok when's the next bus? 1:15pm, that's great, since it's 8am we only have a few hours to wait. There was a bus to Guayaquil about every 30mins, but not to Cuenca. So we waited. Had lunch at the terminal and waited some more. It was finally time to head over to the platforms and get ready to board our bus. Except it's running late. Frustration had fully settled in by now, and while the bus was only around 30-35mins late it felt like hours. Finally onto our bus and we're off. 7 hours later we arrived in Cuenca. The driver did his best to get us there on time, I reckon he drives Formula One as a second job. Andrew was sick on the bus and Emma was sick just after getting off the bus. We ended up with a really nice taxi driver who gave us a little info on the way and was nice with the kids after seeing Emma sick in a pot plant. Finally at the apartment, the lady let us in and showed us around. After getting up at 6am and getting to our apartment just before 9pm, we were all done. We'd spent all day either at a terminal or on a bus. Not a fun day, but we're here. Tomorrow will be better, goodnight.
14.10.2025. Grocery shopping to be done, so we're not always shelling out heaps at restaurants. We then found a market for some fruit and veges. There were these full cooked pigs upstairs at counters and a lady behind one convinced me to try some. Bloody delicious. Andrew had a try too and soon after we had ordered two plates for the kids. We got some fruit and veges and headed back. After putting everything away we did our own thing for a bit. In the evening we headed out to find a sushi restaurant. The kids, especially Emma, have been very demanding in their opinions on when we should next go to a sushi restaurant. We relented and decided to go tonight. We walked to the first one on GMaps. It was shut so we headed to the next. Couldn't find it, off to a great start. We walked past the next one as the front was pretty small. We doubled back and went in. As far as sushi goes it was ok. The kids really enjoyed it. They didn't have ramen, my favourite at sushi restaurants, so I had to order something else. I got some maki which is supposed to be spicy, it wasn't. We ate, we paid, then we walked around the city a bit at night to take it in.
15.10.2025. Today we are having a look around the city and visiting places. Mel has come up with an itinerary for us, so that's what we're doing. Our first stop is an old cathedral in the centre. At the entrance they have three bells on display. The largest weighs over 2,800kg. These bells were meant to be installed in the new cathedral but it never happened. So now they sit here, tonnes of brass on display, never to be rung. After the old cathedral we walked across the square into the new cathedral. The new one is much larger and we got to go up the towers. At the top we got a really good view of the place. There's towers for cathedrals or churches all over the place. There is a wooden model of what the finished cathedral was supposed to look like. The bell towers on the model are another couple stories taller than the real thing, and we later found out that they didn't get completed as it was thought that underneath was not strong enough to hold it all. Hence the bells still sitting in the old cathedral. It would have been very impressive to have seen the finished product, but I do understand that you don't want it falling over. Might give the wrong impression. After the cathedrals we walked through a flower market. Lots of flowers, obviously. The place was full of colours and smells. Right next to it were a few small vendors selling trinkets. Emma bought a necklace, let's see if she wears this one and Andrew got a replica key ring sword. One of the swords of Zoro from one-piece manga. At first he said no but I could tell he really wanted it. Eventually he said yes, that he would like it. We then walked to a hat museum, where they make the Panama hats. We got to see a guy heating, pressing and shaping hats. Another guy trimming off the excess fibres and then using a machine to flatten them. We had lunch there, toasted sandwich and chips, not real fancy, but it did the job. Our next stop is a money museum. Showcasing old and new money from Ecuador. At the top there were coins from the 16th and 17th century. Back downstairs they had some coin packs for sale, and since that's what Andrew is collecting, we got a couple. We then went and spent some time in a park for the kids to run around a bit. After, we went back to the apartment and that was it for the day.
16.10.2025. Today we have a cooking class. Set in a restaurant that actually served people as we cooked. We prepared a starter, main and dessert for ourselves. The starter was Tomales, mashed potatoes mixed with eggs and butter. Then you put it on a big leaf, add some cheese and capsicum. Fold it up and steam it. We chopped up all sorts of stuff. Capsicum, garlic, chillies, cabbage, carrots, coriander and parsley. After all the chopping and mixing my arms were stuffed. We seemed to be making a lot for just four people. The instructor said we were making for others too. What others? Later an older guy came in and had one of the Tomales we had made. I saw that he paid for it. So we paid to make them, and they sold them after. Double dipping at its finest. The best thing we made today was garlic prawns. After both kids said they don't like prawns, Emma ate most of hers and Andrew wanted to eat everyone's. It was fun and we were all full as googs after. Back to the room to digest for a bit. Later we went out looking for live music. I found a place called Bistro Yaku that had some live music and was also hosting a charity fundraiser. The fundraiser was for a woman's shelter, which we were only too happy to donate some money to. It was, however, not what I was hoping for. The place was full of expat Americans, including the band. We still had a really good evening. There was no room left so we had to sit at the bar. Andrew was mesmerised by the barman mixing drinks. I'm not sure he actually looked at the band. The music was good, the crowd was good and we had a nice time. Hopefully next time I can find a bar with Ecuadorian music and musicians.
17.10.2025. This morning we're heading to another museum. There was lots to see, but my favourite part was outside of the building but still inside the grounds. Some old ruins and a garden they recreated from some texts recovered about how it looked centuries ago. We walked right past some Llamas in the park too. There were all sorts of grasses growing tall, fruiting trees and plants and a pond with fish. I do like walking around looking at that sorta stuff. On one part of a hill, there were some chambers built into the hill. They looked like they used to be covered and had doorways in from the side of the hill. I wondered if maybe they were for food storage as I would have been cooler in there. We'll never know as there was very little signage around the place. Once finished here, we then headed over to a modern art museum. I'm always interested in modern art from the countries we visit, as it changes everywhere. Unfortunately it was closed. Well bummer. We headed back to the apartment and rested. Kids caught up on blogging, then we finished with a movie night.
18.10.2025. We headed out this morning looking to sort out our bus tickets for Monday. We got side tracked as there was a huge parade all the way up one street. We think it was for a school or schools, as there were lots of kids in uniform. We watched people march with banners while kids drummed. There were people on stilts, people dancing in colourful dresses and costumes. At the very end there was a band in the back of a ute. They were pretty good and I wished we had heard them at the pub the other night. After that we were once again off to the bus depot. This time we made it without further disruption. There were a few offices saying they sold tickets to Loja, but they all pointed us towards just one, so we went there. The person behind the counter didn't speak much English, none really. After a few minutes we managed to work out that there may not be a bus on Monday due to the protests around the country. There will be a bus tomorrow, they're just not sure what time. Ok well that changes our plans a bit. We were told to be at the station early to make sure we got tickets. Mel got on the phone and changed our booking for Loja. We headed back to the apartment, stopping at a small park to let the kids have a run around. Back at the apartment we all packed and got ready for tomorrow. After packing we went out again in the afternoon. We had found there would be a puppet show of sorts at an open area in the city. We got there early, it's what we do. So we had a brief stop over at a small bar near the spot. I tried a couple more beers, made right here in Cuenca. Then we went to the show. Two people, a couple puppets and a pile of rubbish. It was all in Spanish but we got the gist of the act. Get kids to recycle and look after the place. There was a fair bit of laughter, some crowd involvement and some rats being chucked around. It was pretty well put together. Wish I knew Spanish though. Afterwards we walked back along the river towards our apartment. We were hoping to find some more live music, but it was not meant to be. We went to bed looking forward to another lovely bus ride tomorrow.
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