Cuenca and few randoms

Cuenca is a city of incredible architecture, full of beautiful churches, museums, and buildings designed with such care a creativity.  It is full of panaderias, bars and clubs, along with neat parks, and four beautiful rivers.  It is a busy, packed city…but surrounded by a ton of farmland (el campo), rolling hills, the Andes, and a number of incredible national parks and adventures.  I’ll tell you more once I go on these adventures J

The City of Cuenca

Here are a few randos about Cuenca so far…

Honking is a like another language here.  It is seriously constant, and there are a million honks meaning different things.  I am slowly learning to speak honk...for example, some honks say “pardon me, im just gonna slide on by…”, others say “get the f out of the way”, others ask “seriously, what is going on?”, etc.  Once one car honks, all cars join in, and it never stops.  I think, when I return to the U.S., I might even have a hard time thinking and sleeping without constant honking.

Mountain Air- There is something here called “mountain air”…I don’t quite understand it yet, but people strongly fear the “mountain air”.  No matter the weather, especially in the mornings and evenings (when the “mountain air” is apparently strong) people walk around with heavy duty winter gear on…thick scarves, those pull-overs that cover your entire face, etc.  Even when it is sweltering hot and sunny, this happens.

The Sun rises and sets in the same direction for half the year, and then rises and sets in the opposite direction for the other half of the year.  This is pretty nice for me right now, because I am here during the time where it rises and sets outside my window!

Fireworks go off all day and all night long, everyday, no matter the occasion, and especially if there actually is a special occasion.

The Weather is a little nuts.  I didn’t really believe it when I was told that Cuenca is a city of four seasons in one day, but its pretty true.  The weather changes drastically from morning to night, and even from minute to minute it seems.  It will feel like 70 and sunny one minute, and the next minute pour rain and drop 40 degrees.  I find myself constantly way too hot or way too cold, I am always bundling up and shedding layers.

Locks- People love to lock things here…there are locks to open more locks to open more locks…and so on.  It takes me four keys just to enter my house.  I also think I have a small balcony attached to my room, but I haven’t figured out how to access it yet, due to the locks.