Cuenca

Cuenca Edible Art

Posted on January 5, 2013 by twowhotrek

UPDATE 1/8/2013  — At first Two Who Trek didn’t know what image was being created in the series of photographs below.  However, our travel agent pointed out today that the pictures were upside down!  The image being created is that of a chola cuencana, a local woman in the native dress.

Thanks, Maria, for the correction!  We’ve updated the story below.

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Tonight Two Who Trek joined the rest of the AHI travel group for a fine meal at Tiesto’s Restaurant, currently ranked #2 of 111 restaurants in Cuenca on TripAdvisor.com. After a fine Ecuadorian style meal, the restaurant served desserts on platters hand-painted (yes, painted) by Chef Juan Carlos himself.  OK, it’s not real paint he uses but food products — hence the name, edible art. Continue reading →

Categories: Cuenca, dining, ecuador, food preparation, photos, restaurants, travel | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

An awesome place to spend New Year’s Eve

Posted on January 5, 2013 by twowhotrek

Cuenca, Ecuador is a fantastic place to spend New Year’s Eve!  No, wait – that’s not quite correct.  Cuencanos celebrate “Años Viejos”, the Old Year.  The festivities are more focused on saying farewell to the old year than in welcoming the new one.  However, all the celebrations are much more elaborate than any in the United States.

Continue reading →

Categories: blog, celebrations, Cuenca, ecuador, Journals, photos, travel | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Markets in Gualaceo and Chordeleg

Posted on January 2, 2013 by twowhotrek

Check cuy off the gastronomic list!  Cuy, pronounced like coo-ee, is an Andean delicacy that we missed trying in Peru on our 2006 trip.  Cuy can be charcoal roasted (as we had) or baked.  What is cuy?  Most people know it as guinea pig.  Forget that Sherri once had a pet guinea pig named Ginger.  The Andean guinea pigs are born to become part of special celebrations, like holiday dinners.  Cuy is delicious!  Joe thinks it tastes like really sweet chicken and Sherri thinks it tastes a lot like dove. Continue reading →

Categories: blog, chordeleg, Cuenca, ecuador, gualaceo, photos, travel | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cuenca at last!

Posted on December 31, 2012 by twowhotrek

Two Who Trek arrived in Cuenca after a forty minute flight from Quito, a trip that would have taken about 12 hours by bus.   We were taken by bus to the Hotel Victoria, a small, lovely hotel that was a 17th century “hanging home” that overlooks the River Tomebamba, separating the historic center of Cuenca from the more modern area.  The hotel is owned by Daniel and his mother and features many homey touches, such as afghans hand-woven by the mother.  It was like staying in someone’s hacienda.  Continue reading →

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The Twelve Days Before Cuenca

Posted on December 17, 2012 by twowhotrek

In the twelve days before leaving for Cuenca, my true friend gave to me – Continue reading →

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Learning Spanish the Slacker Way

Posted on December 10, 2012 by twowhotrek

If you are reading this post in December, you’ll notice a countdown clock in the right column, showing that we have just 17 days remaining before our month-long trip to Ecuador.  We are busily preparing for the trip as well as getting our Christmas gifts, cards, and traditional activities completed.

The trip organizers have been very helpful, sending weekly email messages to prepare us for the adventure.  Topics covered include what to expect, what will we need (i.e., Cuenca has the same electric power and plugs as we do so no need for converters or adapters), and lists of Spanish words and phrases to study.

Their goal is for us to learn about 2,000 words before we board that first airplane.  So far, Joe has mastered two—“cerveza” and “baῆos”, figuring that would cover both incoming and outgoing.  He was shocked to learn that “baῆos” was really a place to bathe and that he needed to ask for a “servicio”. Continue reading →

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The trip in a box

Posted on December 7, 2012 by twowhotrek

Yesterday among the cartload of ubiquitous smiling brown boxes from brazillian-river.com[1] that the UPS driver lugged to Joe’s door was this mysterious priority package:

The mysterious UPS Priority package

The mysterious UPS Priority package

Upon closer examination (which really didn’t have to be that close), Joe found that the three-pound package came from AHI, the organizers of the upcoming trip.  Continue reading →

Categories: blog, Cuenca, ecuador, Journals, travel | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

Where?

Posted on December 5, 2012 by twowhotrek

Ever had the desire to live in a foreign county?  Maybe not forever, but at least during the cold winter months?  Twowhotrek have had that idea for some time.  Now we get a chance to live that dream.

In March 2007, Twowhotrek visited South Africa.  We really enjoyed the city of Capetown, the beauty of the surrounding area, and the vineyards not too far to the east.  After a cold Michigan winter, the warmth of South Africa’s late summer felt great.  One day the thought came as we were bouncing on a tourist bus – why not spend a month in Capetown some US winter?  After all, of the eleven national languages in South Africa, English is the one most commonly used.  They even drive halfway normally, just on the other side of the road.  Sadly, mundane things like having to work for a living have prevented that dream from coming true so far (but we haven’t given up yet!).

Fast forward to 2012.  Continue reading →

Categories: background, blog, Cuenca, ecuador, travel | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

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