Wednesday - Tourist Day

Today, we decided to take the Cuenca City Tour on a Double-Decker Bus. It's $5 per person for a 3-hour tour.  Viewing Cuenca from the top of the bus is like seeing a whole new city.  When walking down the narrow streets of Cuenca, you typically only see the ground level businesses.  But there is a whole other dynamic going on above these shops and business. All the buildings are multi-story and there are many apartments and offices on 2nd and 3rd stories that you can't see or just don't notice when walking down the street.

The tour starts in El Centro and stops midway at Turi, one of the best viewpoints in the city. Then the bus meanders back to El Centro.  Here are some of the views from our Double-Decker tour today:

The Bus

The Top Deck

It was cool today, needed long sleeves and a jacket

 El Centro Park from Up-Above

The Old Cathedral

Seeing architecture that you don't notice from street level  

 

Indigenous women sitting in the park

The churches surrounding the Park

More views from up above

Bus heading up the hill to Turi.  Or you can take the 439 steps and walk

 The view of Cuenca from the Turi overlook

Panoramic Video on Turi

Panoramic view feature taken with Dana's iPhone

Cloudy - and with sunscreen, we both were still a little sunburned today

There was a hat shop near the Turi stop. You can see why we didn't buy anything!

Some of the sights on the way back to El Centro

Translation: Chicken, Guinea Pig, Grilled Meat and Trout (Yes, Guinea Pig!)

After we got off the bus, it was time for lunch - an almuerzo.  I would just take a wild guess and say there must be up to 50 different choices for lunch within the 4-block radius of Park Calderon.  Today we splurged and ate at a Mexican restaurant - El Pedregal Azteca.  Dana's burrito was $3.50 and my fajita plate was $5.50.  It was good, with soda, chips, soup and ice cream for desert.

Like all the places that we have eaten, it was a quaint cafe setting.  We noticed that there were almost all Gringos eating lunch there - with most having a margarita to wash it all down.  I guess traditional rice and chicken lunches get old and Gringos need their Mexican fix every now and then. This place did have an interesting decor with photos of Mexican musicians (namely Carlos Santana) and notes and sketches written right on the wall.