Cuenca

I've been in Cuenca for five days now, so I've got to know the place pretty well. The main reason I decided to study Spanish here rather than in Quito, which was my original plan, is that I've had too many people tell me how dangerous Quito is. Also, an Australian guy that I met in Lima recommended Cuenca to me, and he also recommended a particular language school (Amauta), and that's where I'm now studying. The downside of being in Cuenca is that the weather is pretty awful, with constant cloud cover, rain almost every day, and a maximum temperature of about 18C - it's a bit like British weather really.

I've gone a bit more upmarket with my accommodation this time, and I'm staying in quite a smart hostel in the Barranco area of the city, on the cliff overlooking Tomebamba river. It's costing me a hefty US$18 a night, but I'm sure I'll be back to the US$5 dorm beds at my next destination.

The historic centre of Cuenca is quite impressive, and it's retained a lot of its colonial architecture, for example this street. Cuenca has two cathedrals - there's a small one dating from the year of the city's foundation in 1557, and a big one that was built opposite it in the late nineteenth century because the old one was considered to be too small (there are photos of the new cathedral here and below).

The reason the towers at the front look a bit stumpy is that the cathedral is unfinished. This is what the cathedral was meant to look like, but it was discovered during construction that the architect had made a serious miscalculation, and if the towers were built to their full height, the whole building might collapse. 130 years after construction began, there are still plans today to complete the towers using a lighter material.

Another of the historic buildings in the centre of Cuenca is the church of Carmen de la Ascunción, which has a flower market outside it. The church has a nunnery attached to it, where the nuns, who aren't allowed to see or be seen by the outside world, make a living by selling goods through a turntable that enables them to remain hidden.

Cuenca also has a lot of museums, including the Museum of Modern Art (nice building, not very good art in my opinion), and the Museum of the Central Bank, which is next to the Inca site of Pumapungo. And did you know that Panama hats originated in Ecuador? Well I didn't, but it's true - for some reason the hats became known after their place of international sale rather than their place of manufacture. There are several workshops and museums in Cuenca dedicated to the Panama hat, and I went to one of them, where we were shown how the hats were made (you can see some hat moulds in this photo). Below is a picture of me trying on what looks like a torture implement, but is actually a device for measuring head size.

The World Cup started the day after I arrived in Cuenca, so I've been watching quite a few of the games since I've been here. Unfortunately, because of the time zone I'm in, most of the games are in the morning, which isn't ideal. However, the England vs USA game was at a fairly convenient 1.30pm on Saturday, so I went to my local Austrian pub (called Wunderbar) to watch England's embarrassing performance. It seemed as though most of Cuenca's British population (and the few Americans that cared) had gathered there, so there was a pretty good atmosphere.

On Sunday I went on a day trip to three nearby towns, Gualaceo, Chordeleg and Sígsig, which are known for their Sunday markets. Gualaceo had the biggest market of the three, which was mainly fruit and veg. Chordeleg's was smaller, but the thing that struck me most about Chordeleg was the incredible number of jewellers around the main square - it was like being back in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham. Sígsig had some strange sculptures in its main square, and quite a big indoor market, which I would guess is open every day, so there didn't seem to be anything particularly 'Sunday' about it. Maybe the Sunday market was somewhere else, and I didn't find it...

Anyway, on Monday I started my week of Spanish lessons, and they're going OK so far, but my teacher is definitely not as good as the one in Cuzco. I'm certainly learning new things though, so I think it's worth the money, particularly as it's only costing me US$160 for 20 hours, which is a fraction of what private tuition would cost in the UK. The school also organises events for the students in the afternoons. Yesterday's was a city tour, and today's is a salsa lesson - it seems as though most of the current students are male, so hopefully they'll rope in some of the (almost exclusively female) staff to join in the salsa lesson, otherwise it's not going to be much fun.

OK, there's more I could say, but I think this post is long enough, so I'll probably write some more at the end of the week.