The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception taken from the Negroni rooftop bar across the Calderon Plaza.
Santa Ana de Los Rios de Cuenca is the official name of this city founded in 1557, with a population these days of around 600,000 people and whose most well known product from its textile factories is the Panama hat. They have a museum for that as we shall see one day soon.
At 8400 feet above sea level it has a mostly pleasant climate if only this year’s endless rainy season would stop and the town itself, nicknamed the Athens of Ecuador, is a very pleasant place to visit. We wandered Old Town Sunday afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it.
There’s a large population of expatriates living here, and you can see why, as it’s inexpensive (for us) attractive and has all services. Oddly enough I find the narrow old town streets easy to drive in not too aggressive traffic.
City hall.
Pretty fancy.
The new cathedral.
Wilderness Saves.
Save The Wilderness.
No translation needed.
These streets have weird raised curbs, street car lines and apparently raised center lines.
Rooms and apartments for rent.
The government decided it didn’t have enough money to fund railroads or the post office. So they shut them down.
Street car stop:
The main plaza called Calderon was pretty crowded on a Sunday afternoon.
“Rooms and small apartments to rent. NO FOREIGNERS” Fine. Lucky for me I’ve got a van.
Anti theft devices on roll up doors.
Lunch was a bit decadent. Chocolate and pistachio ice cream for me and tiramisú and coffee for Layne. Rusty got a share.
Ice creams were popular in the plaza.
