Lets see YOUR house last 500 years...

Cuenca is a very nice city, full of old colonial buildings and churches. Most things are within walking distance, and they have lots of sings and maps up everywhere for tourists like us. We took a walk through the town and checked out the river, where lots of people still come and wash there clothes, then leave them to dry on the grass nearby. Down near the river is a Pre-Inca ruin, whose name escapes me, but it was only accessible if you went to the museum next to it, so we did the cheap thing and just walked around peering through the fence. We did go see another museum though that housed the best collection of Indigenous artifacts we've seen. They touted it as "a gift to the Indigenous people of Ecuador" and it had everythign laid out in the many different cultures that inhabited Ecuador before the spaniards arrived and pillaged everything, heh!

To keep with the history theme we took a day trip up to Ingapirca, which is Ecuador's best Inca ruins. It was a great thing to see the walls and temple that had been partially rebuilt, and catch a glimpse of what it looked like 500 years ago. They took us on a tour of the site, which had originally belonged to the Cañari peoples, but they got conquered by the Inca who built a bigger and better temple beside the Cañari one. The whole site supposed to be a religious place, where only important people lived (priests, rulers and their servants/women), and they grew the medicinal herbs and plants in a half moon garden. The two temples, of the Moon (Cañari) and Sun (Inca), were both aligned in such a way that on the soltices, and equinoxes the sun would shine through the doors and onto figures or statues (or a special rock) as it rose or set. We got a tour around the place and checked out some nearby baths that were carved right into the rock, and fed by aquaducts. All in all it was very cool and got us excited for Machu Picchu and some other sites in Peru.

We were going to head out of Cuenca for Loja and some hiking but heard there was a Football game on Saturday, so we stuck around one more day. We spent the morning and most of the afternoon outside Cuenca in the small Village Town of San Bartalomé, which has a number of different Guitar Craftsmen. The busses don´t really go to San Bartalomé regularly so we go there around noon, which is when most people take their Siesta, or extended lunch break, so we had to ask around quite a bit to actually see some guitars. We went to two different shops and saw some really nicely made guitars, all made by hand. It´s amazing how intricate some of the inlay is and how much work goes into the guitars. Where we were staying in Cuenca, a graduate student from Holland is writing his thesis on the town and it's guitar makers. He explained that unfortunately the town which is historic for its Maestros (guitar makers), has been struggling due to pressures from the global market. It's much cheaper to buy a guitar from China than small town Ecuador. Even so, I did some inquiring and to have a completely custom built guitar by hand would run you around $300. Incredible! I've been seriously thinking about taking one off their hands on our way back up here.

We left San Bartalomé a little late, due to infrequent busses and made it back a little late for the soccer game. The game seemed to be a University match between Cuenca and the capitol Quito. The whole stadium, except for a small section in the corner behind a net was dressed in Red and Black (Cuenca´s colours). Quito´s small section was sporting White. It was a great event, but most of the entertainment came from the crowd not the game. The game was kinda boring actually, lots of guys falling down "hurt", getting carried off on a stretcher then jumping off and running back onto the field to play. The crowd however, uncontrollable! They had drums and cheers, waterballons, fireworks... there were riot police and national guard there. The best (or worst) place to sit was behind the players benches, which were covered, so the barrage of waterballons wouldn´t get them too wet. They would also set off large and noisy fireworks right in the stands. One time a Quito player got a red card (kicked out of the game), and had to be excorted from the field with two police with big shields. It was hilarious. They let the Quito fans out first then after a short wait they let out the rest of the Cuenca fans. Outside there were police on horseback, more waterballoons flying, and it seemed like a full scale riot was about to ensue, but I think it was just par for the course at a University game here... lots of fun.

We needed a bit of home and went out to the Multicines movie theater for some english hollywood (with spanish subtitles and previews). Took in "Un Noche en el Museo" with Ben Stiller and others, very good funny flick, kinda Sappy, but that´s ok.

We're in Loja right now and most likely off to Villecabamba for some more hammocks and relaxing. Although it is Carnaval right now everywhere, so maybe some waterfights or dancing might happen!

Speaking of Carnaval, it seems like everyone participates in a full scale, country wide water fight for the month of Febuary. Several busses we've been on have been pelted with waterballons, or buckets. On our train ride we passed a small hill with some kids on it who doused the roof with a bucket of water. Yesterday we were dodging rooftop snipers who would launch baloons and buckets down on the street below, and we´ve been hit a few times from drive-by shootings from a watergun. We're serously thinking of investing in a watergun to retaliate.

taker easy!