Cuenca
18 August 2008 | Cuenca, Ecuador
Heather
The last week in Cuenca we have enjoyed exploring the quaint cobble stoned streets around the city but Spanish classes have been a lot of work! Each day we wake early, enjoy a quick breakfast in our hotel and then walk 3 doors down to the school. From 8am-noon we speak, listen to and write nothing but Spanish. By noon (if not before) we are mentally fried. Somehow in the evenings we rally to tackle the assigned homework.
Our school offers free activities each week so we took a city tour, participated in a cooking class and visited a Panama hat company. The city tour was productive as we took in most all of the sites in one afternoon and learned a lot of history at the same time. In our cooking class we helped prepare a classic Cuencan dish called Mote Pillo, which is kind of like a scramble and contains mote (hominy), eggs, green onions, cheese and is topped with a tasty aji salsa (made from sweet tree tomatoes and fiery chilies). During our visit to Homero Ortega P. & Hijos we learned all about the lengthy Panama hat making process. How is it that a Panama hat is made in Ecuador and not Panama you may wonder? Well the short story is that production of these hats was based in Cuenca and another city in Ecuador called Montecristi and exported to Panama for the workers who were building the Panama Canal. Everyone associated these hats with Panama and the name stuck. Today, these super finely woven straw hats are shipped all over the world from Ecuador.
Weather here is quite cool, about 60F and at least once a day rain showers roll through. Buildings do not have centralized heating so the fleece jackets and jeans we haven't worn in months are getting a lot of use now. Yesterday we overcame the dreary weather by visiting some natural hot springs just outside of Cuenca. Very relaxing.
Luckily we are enjoying Cuenca as we have one more week studying Spanish here!
By the way Cuenca�s full name is: Santa Ana de los cuatro r�os de Cuenca! No wonder everyone just refers to it as �Cuenca�.