Cuenca, Ecuador 🇪🇨 

For the first day in Cuenca it has to be a walking tour! I travel a few blocks to the main Plaza where I am hoping a tour starts from. The guide shows up and explains that we will make 3 stops, as soon as he starts talking I start drifting off. I think he just wasn’t very engaging so I decide to stop after the first stop. We head into the new cathedral, the Inmaculada Concepción.  It was finished in 1988 and so is quite modern, a relaxing space without being too garish. The Cathedral has two towers that are squared off, the story is that when they put the statue of the Virgin Mary on top the facade cracked and they realised it would not take the weight of the intended tower spires, so left them off. The three blue tiled domes on top of the main section are shiny in the sun and a distinctive feature.

As I am now on my own I grab a map from the tourist office and head out on my own tour. I visit the Catedral Vieja or old cathedral as a contrast which is much smaller than the new one but pretty painted colours inside. The flower market is next, sat in a courtyard in front of the Carmen de la Asunción it is full of arrangements that are triangle shaped and supposedly handed down the generations.

I walk down Mariscal Sucre to San Sebastián square and church, Cuenca is a picturesque colonial city with a lot of churches.  It’s a good long walk so I finish the day with a craft beer and crunchy Thai noodles.