This is a very beautiful colonial city. Our hotel is also old and beautiful. Here are some shots of the interior. Our rooms are on the 4th floor. A total of 59 steps up. There is beautiful art on every floor.

We have read that there is a “Free Walking Tour” here as there are in many major cities. We have heard that the guides wear grey shirts and can be met in Parque Calderon. We discuss how people might mistake Stu for a tour guide. Hahaha!!

We arrive at the park and within a couple of minutes we are approached by a young woman and 2 young men. They are leading a free walking tour that will start in about 20 minutes. Greg has also read that the grey shirt guys are highly unreliable and don’t always show up, so these young people will do just fine. The young woman speaks very good English. We begin our tour at the “New Cathedral”, Catedral de la Inmaculada Conception. Across the park is the “Old Cathedral”. She tells us that the new Cathedral is the largest cathedral in South America. It is certainly an imposing building. We saw it last night and it is “muy” impressive.

The last photo is a side view of the original plan. The two towers that you see in the first photo were originally supposed to have tapered towers above as pictured in the plan, but the German Engineer who was working on the plans made an error and the cathedral could not support the weight of the additional towers. The close up view of the stained panel depicts an indigenous Virgin Mary. This pane is above the traditional Virgin Mary. The main aisle has the blue domes on the outside and the 2nd image has them from the inside. Huge structure.

Our guide tells us that Cuenca has 52 churches. Enough that you could attend a different one each week of the year. From the New Cathedral we move towards another church, El Carmen de la Asuncion Church . This one has a flower market and also houses cloistered nuns who sell wine, bread and other items that they grow in their garden, from behind a rotary door for a donation. The first image is the “lazy susan” type door where the locals place their donation and the nuns then place the products and spin so the purchaser can pick up their items without seeing the nun.

The flower market smells wonderful. Our guide tells us that a dozen roses sell for $1.

We head towards the river with our tour that now includes a young man from Greece. He has been solo travelling for a month and has another month to go. We visit the “Hat Museum”. It is here that the weavers send their hats to be finished by pressing them, adding the band and sizing them. Lots of variety here. We also meet a man that lives near Ottawa. Quite a character.

This is where the tour ends. We say goodbye to our guide and her helpers and go looking for lunch. We find a little place on the same street that has a lunch special for $2. It includes some cooked corn, chicken soup, a delicious chicken and rice dish, and a drink. Very good.

We make our way back to the Plaza San Francisco that our tour had taken us to earlier. In this first photo is an example of how babies are carried here. You often see little feet dangling behind Mom. The next is an industrious little lady sitting in her spot weaving little baskets. I bought 2 from her for $2.50. Very nice work. This is our Cuenca sign shot.

There are also a lot of murals in Cuenca. Here are a couple.

We also see many little stores that are all barred up. You go up to the bars and ask the proprietor for what you want. They go get it for you and you pay through the bars.

After dinner we need to back to take photos of the New Cathedral when it is lit up at night. It is very beautiful. It just begs to be photographed, even if you have already taken a dozen photos!!

We are really enjoying Cuenca!!