Swiss Wassi

I am sitting in a bamboo beach chair overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

But I am not alone. He loves it here. 

Mati and Sammy left early this morning while Layne and I were sleeping off our border crossing stress from yesterday and our Brazilian neighbors are nowhere to be seen while their Transit van is closed up.  Layne is aboard GANNET2 making herself some cereal while I am out here supposedly writing a blog entry.

Mati described the sea air in liquid terms after weeks of living at high altitude in the rarefied air above ten thousand feet and she’s not wrong. Layne’s persistent cough and hoarse voice have disappeared and lassitude is the order of the day.

I think I’ll save the story of our last drive through Ecuador and our border crossing for tomorrow as today looks to be a swimming day, a lounging day and a day to figure out European style 220 volt shorepower. We are no longer in the familiar.

The drive from the border was dusty and messy and filled with motorcycles adapted to three wheelers as taxis and pickups and general purpose transport all at 35 miles per hour.

We sashayed among them like Cleopatra’s barge among minnows bouncing over speed bumps and trying to find a traffic lane on a road with markings but full of potholes. Layne started laughing as I started swearing.

She said something about me losing my shit after twenty miles when the country is only 1600 miles long. Supportive to a fault

We pulled up at the gate to Swiss Wassi (“Wassi” means home in Quechua) and the manager game to the door and asked us if we wanted come in. As though we had stopped our campervan there just to admire the view. We had no idea how good it was going to be once we got to the inside of the forbidding gates.

It’s eleven dollars a night plus a couple of bucks to use the kitchen and a couple more if you want to use the pool. The fridge is full of cold beer and Rusty is taking no guff from the campground’s barky hairless Peruvian dog who is I think  quite sweet but looks like a black shiny nightmare on legs poor thing.

Mati and Sammy showing us how you do Peru:

The English overlanders are gone now to an Irish pub in Lima to see England kill Spain in the cup final on Sunday afternoon. I don’t envy them two days to drive 800 miles but their journey is ending and they have sold their van (online - Oh brave new world) to a Dutch couple who will use it with its Chilean plates to tour South America in turn. Now we have to ship GANNET2 to Europe as we have people to see in Cornwall. 

Dinner was falafel and conversation while watching the sun go down and then bed and sleep for dessert.

Layne is working out our route across Peru, a mixture of coast and mountain with cities and sacred valleys and a visit to Machu Picchu perforce in the mix. Bolivia may not be on our route depending on how they are behaving when we get there but if not the reward is Chile, a country of decent roads, order and high prices. So much to anticipate. 

For now we swim. Our happy place. 

To Peru

The plan is to drive to the coast of Peru today on a road that is described as slow and windy as we finally get back down to sea level and warmer temperatures.

Swiss Wassi ( the Swiss House) is a small beach campground founded by a Swiss couple and enjoys an excellent reputation. We are looking forward to some swimming and relaxation. Then as we drive south we hope to see some of the famous ruins of Peru a two thousand mile long country filled with spectacular scenery and high mountain valleys. 

What a city was Cuenca.

Last Day

I’ve talked about this with other overlanders we’ve met in Cuenca and we all agree this city rates as one of our favorites. For myself Cuenca is my favorite city since Mexico.

Our Canadian friends Hugh and Sue traveling in a Land Rover had organized a walking tour and I joined them. It turned out we spent four hours marching around this city which is why I couldn’t get a post out this morning and I’m sorry. But I was worn out by the end of Tuesday and Wednesday was our last full day in Ecuador so we had stuff to get ready. With all that excuse making out of the way here are Hugh and Sue posing.

And this is Jenny our English speaking guide taking the picture. 

We took a walk to the courthouse designed at the beginning of the 20th century, marble and all.

This dome put me in mind of the Eiffel Tower cast iron construction and it was apparently a French design. 

Marshal Antonio Sucre was Simon Bolivar’s friend and he came to Ecuador to liberate this area of Grand Colombia from Spain. The currency in this country was called the sucre until 1999 when Ecuador went through a financial crisis and they adopted the dollar (at 25,000 Sucre to the dollar). 

We later climbed to the roof of the new cathedral and I could see the dome from above: 

The financial crisis of 1999 drive many banks into insolvency which allowed the government to take over their asset. This fancy bank, the first in Cuenca was taken over by the city which promptly turned it into city hall. 

There are 50 churches in metropolitan Cuenca and 18 of them are in old town. The oldest is the old cathedral which is a religious museum nowadays. It was built in 1557 and personally I think it’s a lot better looking than the new cathedral. 

Hugh liked the new cathedral which took 80 years to complete starting in 1886. He liked the brick work and the fact that it is the largest cathedral in South America. 

However the church will never get its bell towers. The weight of the statue on the roof is cracking the center of the main wall. 

That would be St Anne, the Virgin Mary’s mother. 

The stumpy towers are all you’re getting. 

We went inside but a service was underway and a church warden announced “no photos” after I got this picture below. If you want to see the interior of St Anne’s Cathedral in Cuenca you’ll need to go online. 

This is the main door. 

The cathedral is a city block long and it looks pretty astonishing from the side. 

We paid $2:25 to climb the 165 stairs to the roof. 

The blue spires of St Alfonso cathedral now know as Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception are visible all over the place. 

We walked to a flower market in the rear of the cathedral. 

Sue and Hugh declined but I bought a 75 cent glass of holy water made by Carmelite nuns. It tasted weird, slightly flat like brine with a hint of rose water. I felt no spiritual change either. 

Inside were desperate parents hoping for a miracle for their sick children. I took my time being grateful for easy access to Jackson South trauma center in Miami. 

St Francis of Assisi square. 

And as we walked my favorite irritation, low roofed parking garages. 

It’s hard finding a safe off street parking for a nine foot tall van. 

These crosses mark boundaries around the city instituted by the Spanish. Indians slaves and other undesirables were not allowed inside this boundary. Jenny was at some pains to point out modern Cuenca is a very inclusive city. She says there are 15,000 foreigners living here and they are very welcome. 

Tourism is down since the President declared a state of emergency in Ecuador and Cuenca is relying on Ecuadorean tourists. Life in Guayaquil on the coast, the country’s largest city has deteriorated so much that crime levels are keeping residents indoors. That’s why we didn’t go to the coast in Ecuador where narco traffickers are running drugs from the mountains north to the US market. 

They escape to Cuenca where there are no safety issues and walking around town is an amazing experience. I loved it and I think walking around the city with a camera would be a great way to spend the day. 

And down below you can see the broken bridge which was swept away by a swollen river and has never been repaired. So now it’s a tourist attraction…

If I wanted to retire abroad in one place I’d look hard at Cuenca. A fully furnished nice apartment with three bedrooms can be had for $650. Not for us, we’re moving on to Peru.