We are in Banos, day 2 of our visit here and I woke to the sound of…what is it? Rain? Waterfall? Someone taking a shower? it was Rain and a virtual downpour. I took a hot shower and grabbed my IPAD (so grateful for this technology) to get out a few necessary messages. First to our Hostal in Cuenca…do you remember the name? You know there will be a test at the end of this..Posada del Rio on Calle Larga and Hermano Miguel. Will they have two rooms for us tonight?
I had a wonderful breakfast of two pancakes with fresh fruit, yogurt and maple syrup. The flavors of the fruit was stimulating: The pineapple had just the right zing to complement the banana, watermelon and passive papaya. YUM.
Then I took a walk in the rain to see this little town of Banos. t reminds me so much of Ashland with all it’s quirky spots. The people in this town really like Art, from our Hostal walls, to the sides of the schools, businesses and private homes…Art is here in Banos. pics later..
right across from our Hostel
After checking out of my Favorite Hostal in Ecuador, (Chimnea), we loaded the car and headed out of town. Our goal today is Cuenca but there is a lot of territory and mountains in between. Hopefully NO DETOURS.
We headed back up to Ambato and traveled thru the Jean Town of Salasca and jeans are being unloaded as we pass by. Its odd that a whole town is about jeans but here it is.
Salasaca, the Jean town!
Again we find the Panamerican Highway and off we go to the south. TLP is seriously lacking in many parts of this journey to the south. I kept careful notes of the names of towns and travel times, etc. so I can pass it all onto TLP folks. Our Barnes and Noble laminated map is pretty good but many small interesting towns are not listed.
We stopped in Cajabamba for lunch and found a roadside barbecue with a whole pig just waiting for us. Potatoes, pork, steamed corn and brined onions, tomatoes and lettuce and of course, Fanta. Very tasty. After lunch we explored a bit trying to find our sweet spot and we did and we ordered our sweet Pan. Gosh, did we get the looks as we walked around. Especially from the school kids.
a whole pig on a spit waiting for us!
Cajabamba lunch
Cajabamba for lunch
I jumped out of the car to take this pic: This little piggy goes to market.
By the way, the rain did not follow us too far and the rest of the day was dry except for FOG! The fog rolled in around three and consumed us. It cut greatly into our speed but Rene is a very safe driver and we are still here to tell you about it.
Along the Andes roads there are blue hearts on the pavement. we found out that these are where people have lost their lives in accidents. One such curve had one large heart and four small hearts: one adult and four children. There are also crosses at some places like we see in the states.
Lost lives: slow down
The best part of the day was in the town of Gaumote. TLP had mentioned that it had a Thursday market and today was THURSDAY!! I was soooo excited to see what it would be like and it fulfilled all my expectations. They could have left me there…I have many pics to show you when I can but let me describe. The dress was pure Ecuadorian with the dark skirts, socks, white blouses, gold jewelry, and bright wrapped blankets around the shoulders…What stood out to me was the hats….brown felt or white ones with rounded top and a dark ribbon circling the base. Add to that VERY short people and you have it. We had to keep a sharp eye on Robin because she blended in quite well. We did not let her buy a hat or we would have lost her in this colorful crowd.
I managed to find some very beautifully crafted tablecloths, scarves and belts…all made on a loom with gorgeous dyed yarns. Another thing that made this so much better than the Otavala market were the animals. I saw people sitting around talking and on a rope leash would be a lamb, cow, pig or what have you. The people come to this market from all the far reaches of the region. They come crammed in the back of trucks, on busses, by foot, by donkey…They come And then they leave and so did we. Gosh, it was great!!
The tablecloth lady
Where’s Waldo?
Typico family
time to go home
Time to go home
Everyone gets a seat
We kept running into the dense fog and then we came out of it to blue skies and fields of an unidentified colorful grain… maybe amaranth or could it be quinoa, the new popular grain that is all the rage in the US?
Is it Quinoa?
With the sun setting and Cuenca just a few kilometers down the road, Rene really put pedal to the metal. We had very little problems navigating our way into Cuenca, even tho I had left the Cuenca map deeeeep in my suitcase. In no time we were on our little street ringing the bell at 4-18 and seeing Ms. Torres. And since almost everything on this trip has been wonderful, of course she had two rooms for us!
After settling in we took Rene and Robin to our favorite Columbian restaurant just around the corner and then to Tutto Freddie’s for ice cream. Cuenca was just as we left it…relaxed, clean and friendly. what’S on for tomorrow? got plans? I’ll be sure to include you…Night.
Cuenca: Tutto Freddie
gerrygoesatraveling 