Walking tour of Cuenca

I didn’t sleep very well - there was so much noise in the hotel and coming from the banana packing facility next door!

My blood sugar was high again this morning, so I skipped most of the breakfast and just had black coffee and some scrambled eggs.

We had booked a walking tour, so we left the hotel at around 8.30am to make our way to the meeting point. Outside the hotel, there were lots of ladies in traditional dress selling fruit and vegetables on the pavement. It was a very colourful scene, but I refrained from taking photos as it seemed too intrusive.

First impressions of Cuenca were that it is a wealthy city with lots of attractive old buildings, many of them French in style. There was also a huge police presence with armed officers and soldiers all over the place. When we met our guide, Thomas, he told us that there is a convention taking place in the city attended by the leaders of many central and southern American nations, plus the Portuguese president, a delegation from Andorra, and the King of Spain. Because of this, many buildings in the city were closed.Read more