Cuenca
We went to Cuenca for the weekend, it's the nicest city I've visited so far in Ecuador. Shame I don't have photos, or I would post a whole heap. It's also the cleanest city I've seen here, and it's real clean, not fake clean like Baños (where it was only clean in the touristy area). The people and government in Cuenca seem to take a real pride in the cleanliness of their city, there are bins everywhere, and also lots of signs promoting the city's cleanliness etc. It was really awesome! Here I also saw the first court in the country! I didn't realise I hadn't seen one here before until now. I'm sure there must be one in Quito, I just have not come across it yet.
Anyway, Cuenca was a spanish colonial city. It used to be an Incan administrative city, but the whole city was burned down during an Incan civil war (before the spanish arrived). So the spanish just built over it, resulting in lots of old colonial buildings and cobble stone streets. It's such a nice city, and relatively safe too (it felt a lot safer than Quito anyway).
On Saturday, we went to the Museo de Arte Moderno (I'm sure you can all work out what that means), it was really good, and I really enjoyed it! They had artworks from many local artists, and also artists from South America. There were sculptures and paintings. I really liked this series of watercolours, it was titled 'Memories of the wood' or something like that, I forgot the actual spanish title, otherwise I would've written that, I just know my rough english translation for it. Anyway, they were all simple, mostly black and white, close-up watercolour paintings of bark on a tree, but slightly abstract. It took me a little while to realise it was actually bark, because the artist had personified it by giving each bark painting a face, so it was like the tree had a 'life', and thus memory. None of the faces had happy expressions, they were probably not too happy at being cut down. It was really clever! I was very impressed.
After the art museum, we wandered around the city and came across another museum/cafe. We walked in with interest, and it turned out to be the most alternative 'museum' I have ever seen! They had really cool artwork, all the walls were painted on, and there were sculptures set into the walls as well. It's hard to describe it, I really wish I could've taken photos. There was a painting on the wall of legs spread open, and where the woman's vagina is supposed to be, there was a 3D carving in the shape of labia, and inside there was a demon (or something similar), shaped like female genitalia. It was really cool (I doubt many of you would agree with me, right?)! That was probably the largest, most confronting piece. The rest were demon/skeletal sculptures, different interpretations of Jesus being crucified (not many were very respectful to christianity, so perhaps that provides a further image of the place), and various other demonic stuff. There were even claws set on the floor of the steps!
Oh, I also got my glasses fixed! Not really fixed, because as I suspected, titanium can't be soldered back together. I just bought new frames and they fitted the lenses into them. I kept my broken titanium ones just in case. My new ones are black and full-rim, but thin, so not like Kylie Kwong! They're just cheap plastic ones (for $12), but at least they stay on my head now, and don't tilt to one side.
Um, what else did we do? Despite the overwhelming abundance of churches and museums, we only went to one museum (as described above. I don't think the alternative place is a proper 'museum' as such) and one church. The church was very grand though. I don't know how old it is, but it was huge, and in the main square of the city, so it obviously held some level of importance when it was built. The interior was all marble, and there were statues and mini altars all along the side of the church. The main altar had a big 4-sided arch (with a round dome, kinda like in the vatican), and I think it's all gold leaf. It was very shiny! The church had a very high ceiling, and above the main altar was an even higher dome. It was quite impressive. Oh, near the entrance, there was a statue of much younger Juan Pablo II (aka John Paul II). I wonder if they're going to get another one of Benedictine XVI.
On Sunday, we walked to a lookout (Mirador del Turi), where there are vistas of the whole city of Cuenca. Despite having climbed Rucu Pichincha, I still had to puff and pant my way to the top. Cuenca is in the sierra (i.e. mountains), so it's also high altitude, although not as high as Quito. When we eventually got to the top, it was quite picturesque. Cuenca is built in the valley, so there were a lot of mountains in the backdrop. All I could see from the top was red though. It seems like most of the buildings and houses have red roofs! And like many other colonial cities, the buildings are usually not taller than 2 or 3 storeys.
On Saturday, we went to the Museo de Arte Moderno (I'm sure you can all work out what that means), it was really good, and I really enjoyed it! They had artworks from many local artists, and also artists from South America. There were sculptures and paintings. I really liked this series of watercolours, it was titled 'Memories of the wood' or something like that, I forgot the actual spanish title, otherwise I would've written that, I just know my rough english translation for it. Anyway, they were all simple, mostly black and white, close-up watercolour paintings of bark on a tree, but slightly abstract. It took me a little while to realise it was actually bark, because the artist had personified it by giving each bark painting a face, so it was like the tree had a 'life', and thus memory. None of the faces had happy expressions, they were probably not too happy at being cut down. It was really clever! I was very impressed.
After the art museum, we wandered around the city and came across another museum/cafe. We walked in with interest, and it turned out to be the most alternative 'museum' I have ever seen! They had really cool artwork, all the walls were painted on, and there were sculptures set into the walls as well. It's hard to describe it, I really wish I could've taken photos. There was a painting on the wall of legs spread open, and where the woman's vagina is supposed to be, there was a 3D carving in the shape of labia, and inside there was a demon (or something similar), shaped like female genitalia. It was really cool (I doubt many of you would agree with me, right?)! That was probably the largest, most confronting piece. The rest were demon/skeletal sculptures, different interpretations of Jesus being crucified (not many were very respectful to christianity, so perhaps that provides a further image of the place), and various other demonic stuff. There were even claws set on the floor of the steps!
Oh, I also got my glasses fixed! Not really fixed, because as I suspected, titanium can't be soldered back together. I just bought new frames and they fitted the lenses into them. I kept my broken titanium ones just in case. My new ones are black and full-rim, but thin, so not like Kylie Kwong! They're just cheap plastic ones (for $12), but at least they stay on my head now, and don't tilt to one side.
Um, what else did we do? Despite the overwhelming abundance of churches and museums, we only went to one museum (as described above. I don't think the alternative place is a proper 'museum' as such) and one church. The church was very grand though. I don't know how old it is, but it was huge, and in the main square of the city, so it obviously held some level of importance when it was built. The interior was all marble, and there were statues and mini altars all along the side of the church. The main altar had a big 4-sided arch (with a round dome, kinda like in the vatican), and I think it's all gold leaf. It was very shiny! The church had a very high ceiling, and above the main altar was an even higher dome. It was quite impressive. Oh, near the entrance, there was a statue of much younger Juan Pablo II (aka John Paul II). I wonder if they're going to get another one of Benedictine XVI.
On Sunday, we walked to a lookout (Mirador del Turi), where there are vistas of the whole city of Cuenca. Despite having climbed Rucu Pichincha, I still had to puff and pant my way to the top. Cuenca is in the sierra (i.e. mountains), so it's also high altitude, although not as high as Quito. When we eventually got to the top, it was quite picturesque. Cuenca is built in the valley, so there were a lot of mountains in the backdrop. All I could see from the top was red though. It seems like most of the buildings and houses have red roofs! And like many other colonial cities, the buildings are usually not taller than 2 or 3 storeys.
Labels: Cuenca
posted by Ruiyi @ 6:30 PM
2 Comments:
I wish glasses frames were that cheap in Australia!
Sounds like fun!
Amy
Sounds like you're having an awesome time <3
Yay for places you've never been to.
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