Friday - Last Day

Last day in Ecuador! In these two weeks we hadn't purchased anything but food - so we arranged to travel to Gualaceo and Chordeleg with the Al, the guide we traveled with on Wednesday, to do a little shopping.

Getting up this morning we knew it was going to be a LONG day and night:

Meet with Al at 8:30am
Travel to Gualaceo and Chordeleg
Back to Cuenca by 2pm
Check out the apartment at 5:30pm
Get to the Cuenca airport and catch 7:50pm flight to Quito
Layover in Quito, catch the 12:30am flight to Miami
Arrive Miami at 5:30am - go through customs
Catch 8:50am flight to Atlanta
Arrive ATL at 11am
Home before 1pm Saturday

Al was right on time and we headed to Gualaceo and Chordeleg. But there was more road construction this trip (it's everywhere in Ecuador) that held us up for about 30-40 minutes. We were on a tight schedule today and were afraid that it might be really bad on the way back to Cuenca - so we agreed to make the trip today short.

Our first stop was at a weaver, where they hand-make and dye threads - and manually weave shawls, scarfs and blankets. It was a really neat place and this family is one of the last in the area still doing all this dying and weaving by hand.

 Family of Weavers at Work

Some of their equipment

 Dying Vats for different colors

Tiny insects from a cactus in his hand

 When smashed, the insects create a RED dye

 Mixing different elements with the Red dye creates other colors - Orange

Weaving is very complex - there is a lot of counting threads to get the desired designs

Dana trying on a shawl 

The proper way to wear a shawl in Ecuador

Dana purchased this shawl for $50

A lot of work dying thread, weaving and tying knots to make this one 

2-3 days total

We then headed to Chordeleg, known for it's gold and silver mining and jewelry. Dana and I were looking for a couple silver rings to commemorate our 25th Wedding Anniversary this year. I lost my wedding ring years ago and Dana's wedding ring catches on everything and she has not worn it in years.

As we pulled into the Chordeleg's main square, there were jewelry stores EVERYWHERE! Al said most of them were resellers, but he knew of one that had a shop and craftsman and created their own jewelry. Since we were looking for plain, simple silver bands, he headed there.

Rings, earrings, bracelets, necklaces and just about anything you can think of made out of silver and gold

We settled on two matching silver bands - with a little design added

And Dana's name engraved in mine, and my name in hers

Total cost: $32

There was a lot more possibilities for shopping, but we decided we were done. We headed back down the hill to Gualaceo to have lunch at a Mercado. Al recommended a soup called Encebollado - which is a soup made from fresh cooked tuna, yucca, tomatoes, cilantro, cumin, hot pepper and topped with pickled onions. They start serving this soup early in the morning since it's considered a "hangover" cure. A bowl of roasted corn was on the table to add to soup if wanted.

Bowl of Encebollado $1.75

Grande Fresh Juice $1

After lunch, we headed back to Cuenca, Thankfully the construction was winding down and the traffic back was not much of a problem. In talking with Al on the way back, he mentioned that Ecuador's World Cup match was at 5pm - and we probably would have a hard time finding a ride to the airport after checking out of our apartment. Friday was a big day in Ecuador - many people were wearing their team jerseys.

We got back to Cuenca about 2pm and started packing everything. We learned most businesses were closing at 3pm so everyone could watch the World Cup. We checked out of our apartment and stood out on Gran Columbia - a major street in Cuenca, and tried to flag down the few taxis that passed by. Most had someone in them, probably heading home to watch the game. Others just flew by without stopping. Cuenca is normally full of taxis - typically it would take less that 5-minutes to catch one. We were getting a little worried. After about 30-minutes (sometimes going nearly 5-minutes without seeing a taxi) one finally stopped for us. He had the match on the radio and when we heard "Gooooooooaaaaaaaalllll" on the way to the airport, it didn't take us long to know that it was Honduras that scored from his reaction.

We got to the airport in plenty of time and got to watch the last half of the Ecuadorian World Cup match on an airport TV - with a large group of airport passengers and workers. It was fun watching them bite their nails as the final minutes ticked off the clock. They had a right to be nervous, they lost the last match in the final seconds. When time did run out in this match, the group started chanting "Ecuador - Ecuador - Ecuador" as Ecuador beat Honduras 2-1.

We arrived Quito with a layover for a couple hours - and saw that they had a Johnny Rockets in the airport. We splurged and had two hamburgers and two cokes for about $34 - which is probably as much as we spent on lunches for the entire 2-weeks of our trip.

Dana waiting on her hamburger at Johnny Rockets in the Quito Airport

2nd Thursday - Cajas National Park

Today we took another day trip out of Cuenca. This one was to Cajas National Park, which is just outside Cuenca. Our guide today was Milton and he was perfect for the job. He had his binoculars and bird watching chart in hand, and he was a born naturalist. He knew the name for every plant and tree in the park.

We first visited the "lowest" point in the park

We hiked a trail around this lake in the park. It was full of trout!

Dana and Milton really got into the bird watching

This is a Ranger's horse, tied and eating grass. It's used for search and rescue

This is an old German Brewery that was abandoned in 1942

Birds in the trees and Ducks on the water

I explained "Duck Hunting" to Milton, I think he was horrified!

 There are two species of trees at this altitude. The Pine introduced in later years and this native Paper Tree

It was a nice morning for hiking

The backside of the lake was more like a jungle ecosystem

Took about an hour to hike around the lake

We next drove up to the highest point of the park. The weather was a lot different at that altitude. It was cold and humid - which made you cold right to your bones!

On the drive up, this is how they haul horses and livestock in Ecuador!

Photos from the highest point at Cajas Park

A bit higher and a lot colder!

This time a horse and a cow the back of a truck

After returning from the park, we planned to head to Roux Bistro and Bar for their Thursday night BBQ. These are the guys who built their own smoker and use sugar cane to smoke their meat with. I could smell it when I got out of the taxi.

Beef loin and ham still on the grill. Chicken and sausage already done

U mm Good! The restaurant was packed (with Gringos of course)

We took a taxi back to the apartment. Normally the traffic around 7pm would be dying down, but for some reason it was gridlocked. Several blocks away from the apartment, we paid the driver $2 and hopped out to walk the rest of the way. When we reached Park Calderon, we found that there were people everywhere - and a main road pass the cathedral was blocked by the police. We found ourselves standing next to a nice couple from Minnesota and they told us it was the beginning celebration of Corpus Christi - the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. It was a big deal! Vendors were selling pastries and sweets, there was music and there was a lot of work being done on two towers of fireworks.

We stuck around and watched the fireworks - and the people

First, fireworks shot from the street in front of the Cathedral

Then the bamboo towers were lit