Cuenca
Hot baths, old cities, bad beds and a view that was worth climbing six flights of stairs
19.09.2008
Cuenca is the third largest ecuadorian city and it is a pearler. Really quite a pretty old colonial city. The churches weren´t great but the museums with archeological artefacts from Tomebamba and around the region really were (my personal favourite was the pestle and mortar with the grinder in the shape of a penis...yeah i´m easily amused).
The Hostel owned by a man, who I later found out was the vice president of the chamber of tourism for cuenca, was up 6 flights of stairs (permanantly broken elevator) and had a view out over half the city which was great at night. The beds were from the mid eighties (huge dips in the middle which meant the best position was across the bed in the dip) but the rooms had cable tv...dickhead. The kitchen had a great view, a rice cooker but no toaster...umm...
My soon to be Irish friend got bed bugs (sleeping in the room I would have got had I gone with a private bathroom instead of shared) but had wireless internet.
This guy had his priorities wrong. Basic hotels ($8 per night) need to get the simple things right. Be clean and have comfortable.
He was nice enough but i have to say it he was an idiot and clearly didn´t know how to run a hostel (beyond finding a great spot). Hated him.
Business in ecuador and peru (and sometimes people) just don´t seem to get prioritising the most important steps to take before trying to act like a first world country. They all sold random things (which shops right next to each other selling exaclty the same things) some without any connection...eg underwear stores with an ice cream freezer out front.
I think the most disturbing thing was walking through really poor rural areas whose lifesavings is their 4 cattles in their back yard but seeing mobile phones left right and centre.
I met and spoke with an american writer who was teaching at a non profit bi lingual school in Cuenca for a year. The teachers there get paid 300 dollars a month. He was very interesting and informative and cracked a beer (longneck) at 10 in the morning on a saturday so loved him.
Went to hot baths while he was knocking back his beer and almost died of bliss. 3 pools (which i had to myself for the best part of 3 hours...a little longer than you are meant to stay in) of 8, 40 and 45 degrees. They were great and really hot and at one point after going from the 45 to the 8 and sitting there for a while I felt like my head was floating as my heart rate dropped down to like 40 beats per minute. A really blissful day relaxing after my hard hike.
Loved myself for making the trip out to do that.
Cuenca was uneventful except for meeting erica my travel budy for over the boader into peru.
Posted by lovehate09 11:54
"soon to be Irish friend" - soon to be Irish, or soon to be a friend? I imagining someone turning into an Irishman, suddenly developing a thick accent and love of Guinness.
The hostel owner really does seem to have all his priorities wrong. Tool.
20.09.2008 by janek85