South America, Days 55 to 58 - Stage 14: Cuenca, Ecuador

This is local eating in Ecuador (in fact all over South America and we've seen it in South East Asia too). Often these places are in indoor markets, they sell the fresh food downstairs and, on the first floor are restaurants or, at least open areas with tables and chairs surrounded by different restaurant outlets. You find spare seats at a table, that may be shared with other people and a waitress from a nearest one takes your order. Each outlet offers limited or one choice. In this case they are all offering 'Hornado' which is slow cooked pork with crackling, roast potatoes and veg. We had a $5 plate and it was more than enough for us both for lunchtime. If you want a drink, someone comes round from another outlet and sells you one

Day 55 Monday

Thoroughly enjoyed our Indian, though nothing changes, I only ate half my dinner, but I blame Brian for ordering a plateful of pakora too. We didn’t eat all of them and he didn’t eat all his dinner either. Fortunately the hotel had a drinks fridge they let us put our takeout in. Perhaps they took pity on us getting in in the middle of a huge rain storm!

Here's the one we chose. See that whole roast pig?

Anyway, up on Monday to go on a free Guru walk of Cuenca. It was pretty much the walk Brian had taken us on the previous day, and he wasn’t the most dynamic of guides, but it was just us and we learned a few things. He took us into the market which was much livelier than on a Sunday, and showed us hornado. Whole roast pigs with amazing crackling. Don’t know how quickly they get through a pig, but it wasn’t there yesterday so hopefully it’s fresh today. We went back for lunch after the walk, it was fab. He did take us up the tower of the cathedral which had been on the cards so that was good. We also went into the crypt of the old cathedral which we wouldn’t have done without him.

And there's lunch - fabulous!

Back to the hotel from where we were going to be collected by William, one of Cheryl’s tame drivers who sadly doesn’t have any English as he is much more local for short journeys than Edwin. William was taking us to the house.

We arrived about 3pm, after a holdup on the main road as a tree had fallen across most of it, fortunately not on anyone. Lovely greeting from Cheryl, Mark and Darla, Asia and Suki, and the talking started. The welcome guide is very important and useful but there is nothing like seeing things in the flesh. Cheryl’s daughter Ailee said hi and sensibly left us all to it, as did Carlos, her man, who arrived back with chicken for dogs, and take out for humans. It is amazing how long a good handover takes, though it’s not just the practicalities, we are all trying to get to know one another too.

We went on our Cuenca city walking tour and this is the new cathedral, built between 1885 and 1967. It's got two towers, you can just see one and they are square on top with no spire or upper structure. The original design had structures planned, as per the photo below, but it was found the weight would have been too much as cracks appeared. If you look at (and zoom in) the circular window, above it is a crack up to the top that appeared during construction. It was concluded that the foundations and/or lower structure was not capable of taking more weight

Suddenly it’s 21.00 Edwin is arriving at 06.00 to take them all to Guayaquil so sleep is necessary. We are in the master bedroom, downstairs, as this is the one the dogs expect to sleep in, and they did, with us, all night long. It’ll take a little bit of getting used to , but it’s the furry fuss we are here for and we are certainly getting it.

The picture on the left is how it is, on the right was how it was meant to be

Day 56 Tuesday

We got up to have coffee with the family before Edwin arrived to take them all away, when we fed the dogs and all went back to bed. The power outage was scheduled for 07.00-09.00, but no sign of it at 07.00. We decided to go out for breakfast, on our way to the Supermaxi supermarket for supplies, back to our regular fruit and granola for me and fruit and porridge for him. No more scrambled eggs for a while thank goodness.

We went inside and found that the towers are completely open inside. Perhaps they decided the weight from floors inside would have been too much

Supermaxi is relatively expensive, but it’s here and stocks a great selection of stuff, I’ve just got to remember what I cook! So far we have walked there and back, though it is up a stiff hill. If I could get my head round a big shop it might be worth a taxi, but it’s going to be little and often to begin with.

We got bad to the riotous welcome that is so nice from dogs, unpacked the shopping and our suitcases, put some washing on and hit the hammocks. It’s a strange dog sit in that the dogs don’t go out walking, they were rescue dogs and a not leash trained and, as we found in Mexico, there are so many dogs running around, actually walking dogs can be very stressful, both for them, and us. They get loads of exercise though, running around the garden as the dogs go past, and the school bus, and the binmen, and as for people who turn round just outside, well!

Higher up looking down. It was at this point our guide admitted he has vertigo so couldn't come to look down here

Having eventually found some tonic water we had treated ourselves to a bottle of gin. Mmm G&T, crisps and the crossword, how nice. We’d realised the family aren’t drinkers, but hadn’t realised that there are no glasses in the house. Brian couldn’t face drinking out of a mug, so we did a quick dash back to Supermaxi. It was only a quick dash, 45 minutes, but apparently my flip flops were too big a temptation, fortunately only them, my freebie, end of the night flip flops from Fiona’s wedding, that owe me nothing. The G&T tasted fab however.

On the walkway between the towers and there's our guide pointing out animal prints in the manufactured bricks. Mmm, they were there but were obviously part of the mould

Day 57 Wednesday

The power didn’t go off at 07.00 today either, though it did go off at 08.00 for an hour. In theory we are going to be incredibly lucky. From the 20th there will be no more domestic outages. They are closing two mines and some other industries for 15 days so whether it’s really the end of domestic outages I suppose depends on how much rain we get. It does seem a little short sighted, but it’s an election year and it’s people, not industry who vote!

We went back down to the village, Challuabamba (we are not really in Cuenca at all, it’s just been easier to say) so Brian could get a haircut. A lot more effort went into it than the No3 all over he gets from me, but $6 so no complaints. Popped into Supermaxi, as it was discount fruit and veg with our loyalty card, not that we know how to redeem our money, but I’m sure we’ll find out. Well stocked now, it’s amazing how heavy a cabbage, a large bit of watermelon and other assorted produce can be. Back again for another afternoon in the hammocks, joined by dogs, Darla for me and Suki for Brian. It’s a tough life!

Nice views from up here. There's the christmas tree in the nearby plaza that we took a photo of in the last blog

Day 58 Thursday

It’s only day 3 but Brian is exercise twitchy, despite buying a cheap pair of trainers on Monday he hasn’t been running, but decided today was a walk. It was all a bit stiffer than expected and we met many dogs on the way. They come running out of their houses, woofing till you’ve gone past. I was glad I had my walking poles for both of those reasons. Mostly the dogs aren’t really an issue, it was just when we got to the end of the road and started up a small track where obviously not many people go, the last dog was a little over the top. He had teeth, obviously they all have teeth, but he showed his, and followed us a long way. So much so that we walked a bit further to avoid coming back past him. This did mean we would come back past three restaurants and a bakery, perhaps there’s a silver lining. There wasn’t, they were all shut. Eventually found a little shop and bought an icecream to keep us going!

The trees in the plaza below and, on the right is one of those modern buildings that they thought made them look more European and modern. Apparently they tore down a perfectly good and architecturally pleasing building to build a concrete 'modern' bland building as that's what they've done in Europe! Opposite is the white tower of the original cathedral built in about 1540 that is much smaller than this one but altogether more interesting

The walk ended up at 4 hours, not the 3 we were expecting and we were glad to get back to the girls who were, as ever, riotously pleased to see us. See our Relive short video of the walk with photos: click here

We bumped into Brian, the local teenage, cow herd. We had been introduced by Cheryl and Mark and he seems a nice lad, it was really bad timing though, we both needed to eat and pee, not necessarily in that order. He invited us to see his cows which we are hopefully going to do tomorrow. He did also take the opportunity to tell us that his cows eat fruit peelings which we had been told, but had forgotten. We’ll take some with us.

Down in the old colonial building next door and there's an impressive view of the cathedral and its domes

I’ve now got to cook my first dinner, leftover curry on Tuesday and leftover fried rice on Wednesday. I guess it’ll be sausage and mash today, as my other option is chilli, in the instant pot (like a pressure cooker) but that’ll be rice as well.

Mid that last sentence young Brian walked past so we ran out to say hello to his cows and feed them all the fruit skins I’d raided out of the recycling bin. Very cute.

This is inside the old cathedral, built during colonial times. Much smaller, but with lots of character

Extra bits were built onto it by people with money and they used to bury their dead in the crypts underneath. They used to be sealed but look, the trapdoor is open and there's stairs down. It was during a power outage, so no lights, we went down with only our phone torches...

I forget how many bodies they said were found in here, but I feel it was in the hundreds. It certainly wasn't just one person per shelf. Why they opened it up and cleared the bodies out I don't know

Watch out for the hole in the ground in the gloom. Good job we had torches. That highlight tape round the edges will make it perfectly safe!

Quite a few rooms down here

And some pretty steep steps in and out. I suppose they were never intended for tourists to go in and out

Just watch where you're walking! A moments lack of attention and you could be down there but, of course, the highlight tape comes to the rescue once more

A side chapel built by a wealthy benefactor. There's another hole in the floor up there, but its OK, its covered with a bit of glass. Like I say, lots of character in this old cathedral

On our way to our housesit in Challuabamba, about 8km from Cuenca along the three lane E35 Carr. Panamericana motorway, but a tree has fallen across all three lanes of the eastbound carriageway. We crept by in the outside lane, crunching across the upper branches. Fortunately it had only just happened so we were quite near the front so were only held up for 15 minutes or so

Here's the three dogletts, Suki, Asia and Darla, we're looking after for 5 weeks and given half a chance, this is where they prefer to be (if not being fed or barking at passing cars)

But at night time they prefer to be curled up on the sofa next to us

Looking at the computer screen with Cheryl to determine when we can expect power outages. On Monday (Lunes) it's 07:00 to 09:00 but, as from today (20th) all cuts are suspended, how long for depends on the rainfall which, to date, hasn't been much

We've got a pleasant house to make our home for 5 weeks

And outside two hammocks, which we're loving! I'm writing this blog from one now. I want to get some of these for our house at home, but 'where are they going to go and how will we store them when it rains' she says being very practical. I don't know, but we'll think of something, they are fabulous!

It's not so easy when dogs decide to join in whilst drinking a cup of tea though

Darla likes to help Jackie with her reading

And she does look quite cute

Right, time for some exercise and that hill up there is the objective. It's a mere 14.5km circuit from the house with an ascent of 500m, which takes us from around 2500m altitude at the house to about 3000m at the summit. Some of these roads are pretty steep and most houses seem to have three or four dogs who bark our arrival, notifying those further on who start up as well. It's the one's that are running free we worry about who come bounding up, teeth bared. Good job she has her walking poles!

Then it got to some overgrown, steep bits with some very snappy dogs at this point. They were all talk though as they kept their distance 

Finally we arrived at a col with fabulous views over the city one side and mountains the other

Mountains that side

And in the distance over there is the city of Cuenca

Some quite impressive drops on the way. We had a long ridge, like this all the way and our route out was back along that road below

At the Mirador, but actually we'd had much better views further back on the summit

Down on the road below looking back up to the ridge we'd walked along

A tiny old church we passed on the way back

The final bit back to the house. I think we were both glad to get back, feeling quite tired. We did stop at a roadside shop for a welcome ice cream

We did find the energy to go out and feed our fruit peelings to young Brian the cowboys cows who are in the field opposite. He's a friendly lad but our Spanish is not up to fully understanding him. Turning the microphone on to Google translate, however, revealed his cows eat banana and orange peel and would we like to feed them. Friendly cows and neighbours!