On Saturday, I made the ~6 hour journey
by bus from Riobamba to Cuenca. Besides
some slight motion sickness from my attempts to do my Spanish homework as the
bus drove quickly among curvy mountain roads, the ride went smoothly. I enjoyed the scenery and a very dramatic
action flick dubbed in Spanish. But most
importantly, all my stuff and I arrived safely in Cuenca! And we even had a bathroom stop (a luxury in the Ecuadorian bus system)!! Very thankful
for that after demasiado jugo y té en la mañana …
I arrived at my homestay and rang
the doorbell. A young boy’s voice came
on the intercom “¿quien?” When I told
him my name, the gate clicked open. I
was greeted by a sweet young boy, who gave me a tour of my new home for the
week and quickly jumped into conversation.
He asked me all sorts of questions, and told me all about Cuenca and
Ecuador-- its history and its people. Then
suddenly we were on to superheroes and the movie Happy Gilmore. The discussion of Happy Gilmore quickly
became a game of charades as he acted out scenes from the movie while I tried
to figure out what the heck he was doing.
Oooooh….he’s swinging a golf club!
The boy spoke rapidly and jumped
from subject to subject in the way that excited children often do. He was clearly a smart kid and excited to
host a new guest, but I was having trouble keeping up. The kid was literally bouncing off the
walls. It was endearing, but I finally
had to ask him to slow down. "Más
tranquila por favor." To which he
responded by a face-palm and an eye-roll.
And then he sarcastically started talking reeeeeaaaalllyyy sloooowly.
Awww, kids…got to love them.
While we waited for my host mom to
come home, he showed me his Lego cannon. Super cool! I hid behind a pillow and held up a target
for him while he launched Legos at me.
It was super fun, and it gave me a chance to practice phrases like “mas
alto” y “mas largo.” And when the rubber
band mechanism eventually broke, I got to play with Legos and help him fix
it. :) I wish I had made things that cool
with Legos when I was a kid!
When my host mom came home from
work, she showed me all around town. Like
her son, you could tell how proud she was of her city. And I don’t blame them. Cuenca is a beautiful city full of
history. I already liked it far more
than any of the other large cities I had been to in Ecuador. So when asked how I liked Cuenca in comparison
to Quito, it was easy to respond with “me gusta mucho, me gusta mas que Quito!”
She brought me to a local bakery
that had an amazing assortment of pan…an assortment that would rival bakeries
in France! Then we went to the market to
buy fresh fruit, vegetables and eggs.
There was an incredible variety of produce, including things I had
never even seen before. And of course,
there were guinea pigs for sale. Cuy, as
they are known in Spanish because of the sound they make, are a delicacy in
Ecuador. Everyone here loves it and I am
looking forward to trying it! When in Rome,
right?!
After stopping at a restaurant for
hot chocolate and tamales, my host mom drove me around historical Cuenca,
proudly pointing out all of the sights. As a highly Catholic city, there were countless beautiful churches, so many that I wonder if it can compete with Rome for number of churches per area. If not, it certainly can for number of churches per capita! Christmas decorations are already up and everything closes on Sundays!!
Driving through the center of town, we spotted
fireworks and stopped to admire the show.
While standing in the beautiful square, watching fireworks, I thought to
myself: “Ahhh si, me gusta Cuenca. Me
gusta mucho…”
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