Cuenca

Hola Los Extranejeros

We have been in Cuenca, a colonial city in the south of the Ecuadorian Andes, for 5 days and have learned absurd amounts of glorious Español. Our mornings have consisted of 5 hours of one-on-one Spanish study with afternoons of various group activies including but not limited to: a city tour, Salsa lessons, a guided visit through a museum with a historical and present representation of different regions and peoples of Ecuador, a cancelled cooking class due to the strikes (more on that later) and getting to know the history-rich Cuenca.

Us girls have been paired up in homestays around Cuenca while the boys have been in their own. This has been a great oppurtunity to speak spanish and experience the lives of local Cuencans. Lunches are the heaviest meal here with at least two courses. Dinners are much lighter and sometimes do not occur at all. It´s okay though, we´re strong (besides Joe who gets spoiled for his endless stomach capacity).

In other news...As you all have heard, during our time here in Cuenca, there was a bit of unrest. During our morning snack break yesterday, we got the news that the police of Ecuador were going on strike due to a cut in their bonuses by President Correa. We were assured that strikes are a common occurance here; however, this is the first occasion that the police have done this. In Quito, things were violent. Here it only consisted of police and their families driving around the city with sirens causing things to go a bit slower than usual (as they tend to be slow already). Today it seems to have completely calmed down in Cuenca besides the military suits paroling the streets with unnecessary riot gear.

Today we travelled into the Cajas National Park. This park is incredibly beautiful partly because of the 235 lakes within it. We think this must be one of the most high density lake populations in the world in one area in the world. We were accompanied by our trusty guide, Pablo, who rightfully explained the beauties which surrounded us. We went for a 2 hour+ hike through these beautiful mountains of the Andes. The 13,000 foot altitude started affecting us slightly, all our hearts were racing, but we took slow. We got back to the city just in time for lunch with our host families and then finally an afternoon to explore the city for all its extravagence.

Tonight we are getting together to put our new-found salsa skillz to the test at a local salsa club...wish us luck!

Tomorrow we have a full day of rock climbing followed by an overnight bus to Otovalo in the north (back the northern hemisphere for two weeks!) It´s 13 hours so hopefully we´ll make it fun, as we always do. Hope you all are doing fabulously back in the US of A and not missing us too much but know we miss you!

besos y brazos a todos

chau,

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