ECUADOR, CUENCA: OLD TOWN

 March 27, 2022

The historical center of the city of Cuenca has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

The official name of the city is Santa Ana de los Ríos de Cuenca. The name Cuenca, which means "basin" in Spanish, refers to its position in a broad valley in the Andes. Cuenca was built by the Spaniards atop the ruins of Tumebamba, an Incan city destroyed in a civil war just before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors.

The city's coat of arms includes the words Primero Dios y Despues Vos, which translates as "First God and then you." 

There are many beautiful buildings in the older part of town, and some date to the colonial era. Others are more recent. Our first stop was the San Francisco Church, largely constructed in the 19th century. The clock tower was added in 1930 and includes the Latin phrase Ora Pro Nobis ("Pray for us") just above the clock.

 

ECUADOR: FAREWELL GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, HELLO CUENCA (A WALK THROUGH THE UPPER CITY AND A VISIT TO THE MARKET)

 March 26-27, 2022

The Alya crew had one more wet landing on Bachas Beach (Santa Cruz Island) planned for the morning, but I was hesitant to get wet just before leaving so I didn't go. I wish I had as Bob said it was one of the best walks of the trip. He was most excited by the fact that they actually saw a flamingo--just one, but what a setting!

I should know better than to miss an opportunity. 

After they got back, we were returned to the tiny Galapagos Airport, where we waited for several hours for our flight to Guayaquil. We were reminded not to neglect wearing a face mask, maintaining social distance, and washing our hands because "The pandemic is not over."  Darn. We had hoped it had disappeared while we were in the wild.

Our group of four couples split up at the Guayaquil Airport, with two couples continuing to Quito and then home, and Bob, Terry, Geneil, and I continuing our adventure. We were picked up by a driver who didn't speak English and who was not terribly interested in trying to understand my attempts at Spanish. He drove us to Cuenca, a drive we thought would take 2.5 to 3 hours, but that he said would take 5, and that actually took 5.5 hours. Terry looked up the route on his phone and saw a long way and a short way to Cuenca, the shorter way having tolls. I tried to clarify with the driver that we wanted the shorter one and would pay the tolls, but he said there was only one road. That really bugged us. (We later learned that the shorter way had been closed since the previous August because of a  massive landslide, so there WAS only one road!)