Adventures in Teaching

My fourth day in Cuenca was the most adventurous. I went to Cajas National Park which is at high altitude and is known for its hundreds of lakes. We started at laguna LLaviuco and took a 2.5 kilometer walk around the lake. We got to see alpaca and llamas which was pretty cool. This used to be a Brewery We then went up to the highest point in the park, 3 Cruces at  4167 meters or  13,671 feet. Luckily we only got out and walked around. It was literally dizzying.  We then went down to 3800 meters and took at 5.5 kilometer hike up and down hills. I was beautiful and breathtaking (no really it took my breath away). After about 3 hours we had a nice trout lunch. Trout were introduced to the park and have killed some native plants and fish. You can now fish unlimited trout if you desire.  On my last day in Cuenca I toured a Hat museum (more like a hat store) and got to see how they finish the Panama hats.  Which incidentally ori

We had time off the week before Carnival and I headed to Cuenca. It is in the Southern Andes about 50 minutes by airplane. It is full of 16th and 17th century  architecture and red tiled roofs.  It is also known for the rivers that run through it.  let's pretend my finger isn't in this picture I stayed in a lovely hotel in the old city center called Hotel Los Balcones. It was quaint with a clean room, good services and a nice daily breakfast on the terrace.  The food in Cuenca was really good. A Pedir de boca was a nice restaurant with asian inspired dishes. I had my first really spicy meal since I moved to Ecuador. I had a noodle dish it was pretty tasty. Next time I'd get rice noodles though.  spicy noodles Sofy GLocal was a lovely restaurant inside the inner courtyard of an old building. The walls had art by local artists and lots of plants.  The food was really good. I went back twice.  smoked trout, capers, and cream cheese open faced sandwh