Phrase of the day: Perdoname, usted dijo "Te helado"!?!, ... Excuse me, did you say "Iced tea"!?!
Saturday was jam packed. We all figured we better enjoy the town as much as possible before having to return to our sites. This is the view from our hostal's roof in the morning.
We began our day with breakfast at a small little cafe next to our hostal. It was a very lucky find. They had fruit plates, pancakes, and granola with yogurt, among other things. George is a beast and ate all of the above, and then an omelette afterwards; ridiculous.
I stuck to the french toast, strawberry shake without sugar, and porridge with apple.
After breakfast we decided to walk around town a bit. Imagine if the high school I worked in looked like this!
We ended up at a few parks, some of which had actual working fountains! That's pretty special here. I see a decent number of fountains, but none ever have water.
The best part was when we went to Turi, a church high up on a hill on the outskirts of the town. It was good to see just how big Cuenca really is.
To more important things... For those of you that have eaten with me a decent number of times, you know I'm a huge fan of iced tea. I'm not sure if it's because I'm from Virginia, or just because I'm not really into carbonated drinks (mostly because I get hiccups whenever I drink them. Yes, pretty nerdy, I know). Nonetheless, I had been deprived of it until Cuenca, land of the foreigners.
That being the case, we sat down to eat at California Kitchen, not to be confused with California Pizza Kitchen. A couple from the States moved down here a year ago and opened this restaurant/hotel; they are pretty much destroying it. The foreigners that live here are mostly from the States, Germany, and Italy, but the people of Cuenca really appreciate international food too. I thought of Willy and ate an amazing steak and cheese sandwich (with broccoli and potato salads). I'm not sure if the food was actually "amazing" or just pretty good. But after rice and plantains for three months, it doesn't even matter. I will definitely be returning soon (to Cuenca and California Kitchen).
After our late lunch, we walked around the old town a bit more.
And stopped at this museum along the river because there was an arts and crafts festival. Yes, I would like to live in the museum! There were artisans from all over Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru. The festival was pretty cool, but you know me and art...
In the evening we did go to a soccer match though! Cuenca versus Olmedo.
It was no English Premier League, but everything is as exciting as you make it! Unfortunately Cuenca lost 3-2, but we were still pretty pumped; I mean, we were in Cuenca.
Some orchids(?) from the flower market:
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