Friday (10-24-2008). Cuenca.

We began our day with a brief river walk and then made our way to Calle Largo, to one of the few bookstores selling books in English to pick up a guidebook to Ecuador that Chris had in Guayzimi. The bookstore is run by an American couple; prior University professors in the states who decided to retire in Cuenca and open a bookstore to serve the travelers of South America. Most of their texts are shipped from the states, but many are exchanged from various travelers. As a result they have a lot of interesting intellectual reads such as the ¨The Story of Language¨ a book on linguistics. I was able to exchange my copy of ¨A Winters Tale¨ that I had just finished for an annotated fire-damaged copy of ¨Heart of Darkness¨ with scholarly notes in the back. It seemed fitting, given our recent jungle experience.

Then we hit up Barranco, a Panama Hat factory and museum.

There we learned the history of Panama Hats, which are actually a notorious misnomer. Panama Hats are not made in Panama. They are made in Cuenca, but were exported by Spanish entrepreneurs to Panama in the 1800s. During the building of the Panama Canal, the workers used them because of their light weight nature, their durability and their ability to keep out the tropical sun. If you buy a genuine panama hat anywhere, it would have been finished in Cuenca. They are made of the woven fronds of the toquilla palm which grows on inland coastal hills, particularly in Montecristi. The fronds are split by hand, boiled and bleached. As they shrink they roll into the strands that are used for weaving. These are brought to Cuenca where they are woven into hats and pressed into their shape.

Inspired by both their rarity, the process of making them and the fact that we were in Cuenca and the sun was really beaming down, we decided to sport Panama hats for the rest of the day. I found one that fit my head instantly that I really liked. Ryan had his pressed and made on the spot. In Cuenca they range in quality from standard (about $15), superior ($25-$50), fino ($50-$100) to superfino ($100-$500). This will apparently cost three times that in North America. We walked away with the standard.

We also had time to check out the Mercado which is like Reading Terminal Market but much much more extensive with racks of meat.

They also sell Panama Hats there but they are actually knock-offs.

We had lunch at Moliendo around the corner: a very inexpensive Colombian restaurant with an incredible variety of food.

I had a cinnamon shake with this very colorful dish:


Like my new hat?

This is Ryan in his new hat and jacket:

Next we went to Banco centro where we learned more about the various cultures of the indigenous tribes, whose ways of life really fascinate us. We were particularly interested to learn more about the Shuar because of our close encounter with them in the rainforest. Apparently hallucinogenic drugs are a huge part of their culture and are given to infants immediately after their birth so that they can encounter their spiritual guide who will lead them through life. They also (before it became illegal) used to create shrunken heads.

It was a part of their justice system mostly involving retribution for murderers, but also involved a ritual process with a specific mythology attached. Now that this practice has been outlawed, they use shrunken otter heads to enact the same ritual. Muy interesante.

Our museum ticket also got us into Pumapungo, an archeological site that contains what is thought to be the foundation of the Inca site of Tomebamba, which supposedly was comparable to Cusco.



They also had some wicked cool shrubberies.

This used to be a terraced garden:

We wandered around and then meandered through their garden: a horticultural wonder inspired by the different medicinal herbs and plants of the Inca, with each plant containing a tag on it explaining its healing properties and origins.




There was also an aviary with tropical birds.


The Inca apparently believed that they were descended from the Macaw.

Also, there were llamas!



Hooray llamas.

Afterwards we explored some pretty brilliant cathedrals:



Evening began to settle in and it started to rain. We found shelter in a Chocolate café and warmed ourselves with hot chocolate with café liquor (coffee liquor), a sandwich and a humita.

The extreme sugar content of a meringue shell that we bought at a panaderia (bakery) had kick-started my appetite and so we went back to Moliendo to sample more of their menu items and to have a few drinks. I don´t really remember what I ate, but I know it involved quail eggs and that sugarcane brandy = an instant smile. The Reina de Cuenca was playing on the TV (Cuenca´s annual beauty pageant) and as we hit our second beer, two guys with a guitar came in and began to play. We were disappointed when they stopped three songs later, but they invited us to Habimis, where they would be playing the pipes.

We headed over and ended our night sharing a pistachio hookah, while watched them play while two very lovely and talented belly dancers danced around us.

On the way back to the hostal, this store kind of cracked me up: