Cuenca, Ecuador

SHARLA: Hello, again! We got up this morning around 8:30am and were trying to think of things to do. We thought about horseback riding, but it was in Cajas National Park, and we are going there tomorrow to ride bikes. We thought about going to a little suburb of Cuenca called Banos (not to be confused with the bigger Banos further north where we are going at the end of our trip) to sit in the thermal baths, but Jessica didn't bring her swimsuit. We mulled it over while we ate Jessica's wonderful fried plantains and papaya. We decided to just walk around Cuenca, and just see what we could find to do.

Just outside our condo

When we left the condo, we noticed crowds of people with red shirts on walking in one direction, so we decided to check it out! A few blocks away, we discover it is a futbol (soccer) game. We decided to go, so we bought some team shirts at a stand outside the stadium, and bought our tickets. Inside the stadium, we found some seats in the shade and started watching the Cuenca soccer team compete against the Manta soccer team. We had only been sitting there a couple of minutes when I noticed Marsha waving to someone. It was Juan, our hiking guide from Friday! What a small world. We tried some peanuts that the vendor put into a dixie cup and then squeezed some lime and some picante into them. He shook them up and gave them to us and they were wonderful! At half time, we walked down to speak with Juan, and then moved to the opposite end of the stadium. The score was 1:1 at the half. We really got into the cheering and rooting for the Cuenca team. They scored two more goals and won 3:1! It was fun.

After the game, we walked through the deserted streets of Cuenca....not much goes on here on Sundays. We did come across a little market where the locals were selling their wares. We only looked, didn't buy. It started raining pretty hard by now, so we sat on the steps of the cathedral and waited for Jessica. We met her at our favorite little restaurant and had llapingachos and Coke light.



The local artists had laid their wares out along the sidewalk, and we managed to find some jewelry to buy....very beautiful handmade by the vendors.

This is Luis from Ecuador...

and, this is Luis from Columbia.

There were some more dancers at gazebo in the park. One of them tried to get me to go up there and dance with him, but I was too shy :) We actually found a store open where we bought some bottled water for the condo. We got a "little" lost on the walk back, but did manage to find our way back. Whew.... Another great day in Ecuador!

MARSHA: what a fun day. we followed a bunch of people wearing read shirts to find out there was a futball (soccer) game. we bought t-shirts outside of the arena for the loal team. the game was fun. we had beer and peanuts. the peanuts were served from a bucketful of peanuts scooped into a dixie cup. they squeezed lemon and poured hot sauce on them. awesome. gonna make that at home. yum. the loal team won 3 to 1. next we walked to the city center and had this amazing dish that we have both fallen in love with called llapingacho and watched some local kids in the park playing instruments and dancing. met lots of locals and a few people from columbia. very nice and fun was had by all. bike tomorrow. to bed early.