Cuenca Part 1: Country mice head to the city

We have been a rural family for the past 2.5 months: living in a cinder block house in a tiny tropical town, tucked miles off an unfrequented highway that leads to a city that most Ecuadorians have never heard of. Ours is an world banked by streams and rivers, where milk cows are happy, roosters crow all night long, "wild" chickens roam, the only oranges we eat are those we harvest ourselves, and fireflies flicker outside our front steps. We literally have a bunny living under our coffee table and a spoiled chicken who believes our home is her personal coop.

In exchange for this rural existence, we have traded cellphone reception, reliable internet, aged cheese,  potable water, wheat bread, art and cultural events, and a range of other urban amenities. And, for the most part, we have all been pretty darned happy. 

Well, for the next two weeks, we are attempting something different; we are being city folk again. We traveled west and south in a truck, a taxi, a bus, a bus, and a taxi to land for two weeks in the inter-Andean valley of Southern Ecuador in the beautiful city of Cuenca. Cuenca is known as the cleanest, safest, and perhaps loveliest city in Ecuador. It is a city with eternal spring weather, preserved colonial architecture, and more gringos than we have seen in months. Needless to say, it's very very different from La Josefina.

We are here principally for Paul to take Spanish lessons, which he started today. 

But we are also here to explore the city, play on playgrounds, visit museums, watch a few movies, and eat good food. Dillon is working on a school unit on Aztec, Incan and Mayan cultures, which makes the Andes mountains, museums and Incan ruins particularly relevant. In fact, as we were climbing the Andes in our comfy bus, Dillon listened to the audiobook version of Secrets of the Andes, a novel about an Incan boy raising llamas in Peru that famously beat out Charlotte's Web for the 1953 Newbery Medal. Meanwhile, I was staring out the window llama-spotting. 

So far, so good. Our funky but comfortable apartment is located right in the historic center, above the Plaza of San Francisco with a birds-eye view of the famous Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.  Church bells from the nearby convent start chiming erratically at 6:36 am each morning, but that aside, we are enjoying urban living and respite from bugs and humidity. We are appreciating high speed internet. Brynna is particularly enamored with the drinkable tap water. Dillon and Jonah are devouring an endless supply of e-books from the Sonoma County Public Library. And I plan to get some good cheese today at the supermarket after I go to the dentist. 
Succulent market in the Plaza de las Flores
Dillon hanging upside down at the Mirador del Turi
Flower arrangements in the Plaza de las Flores
OMG delicious chocolate at the mercado
There are nice playgrounds all over Cuenca. 
Flowers at the market
Climbing a fox in Cuenca
Plaza de San Francisco (the tallest white building behind them is where we are staying)
A rare picture of all 5 of us at the Mirador del Turi
Cuenca's potable water means shaved ice is safe
There are murals all over Cuenca
Super bus travel troopers
This Cuenca sign is in the Plaza de San Francisco
Delicious almuerzo in the Mercado 10 de Agosto
Boys were enamored with the metal worker's shop

PS. The dentist was lovely, and I am not sure I have ever used those two words in a sentence. He assessed my tooth pain, removed an old broken filling and replaced it all in about 15 gentle minutes with no pain and all for $25 cash. I am seriously considering returning next week for a few more things.

PPS. We found delicious cheese! From Saraguro, an indigenous city south of here, where my dear friends, Bev and Clark, did their Peace Corps Service. 

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