Cuenca (Santa Ana de los Ríos de Cuenca) is a city in southern Ecuador’s Andes mountains. It’s known for its Tomebamba River waterfront and handicrafts including Panama hats. Its central plaza, Parque Calderón, is home to the blue-domed New Cathedral and the 16th-century Old Cathedral, now a religious museum. The Pumapungo Archaeological Park and Museum displays ruins and artifacts from the Incan city of Tomebamba. Altitude of 8,400 ft.
Jan. 6th, 2020- Mon. Welcome to hell. Yup I guess it had to happen sooner or later. In all of our years traveling we have been very fortunate. No mishaps, no issues, no misfortune. Til today! Our bus pulled up to where we were to get on and I got all excited as Bill had talked to the driver and the driver said the bus was only three months old. Very swank. So, we loaded up and got moving. It was around 90 degrees outside and I couldn’t wait to sit in the nice air conditioning. Well, guess what? There wasn’t any. After several people complained the driver finally opened the door for some relief. But then closed it again after a short while. It was so hot I stopped sweating . No lie. After about an hour and a half, we reached the mountains and it started to cool down. So another hour and a half and we made it to Cuenca. So glad to step out into the fresh mountain air. Then, Bill felt for his phone and I was gone. He had it in the seat just a few minutes before we got off. Went back in to check our seats and it was gone. I know you may be thinking no big deal, but let me tell you. IT IS! When you have all of your hosts travel info, uber acc., messenger, etc. we had no way of contacting anyone, including our landlord. Bill was very upset to say the least. Ready to pack it all in. I know how he felt as I had my camera stolen in Honduras. Not quite the same but I could sympathize. Then we couldn’t get a cab in front of the bus station. People kept jumping the cue. This made things worse. Well, we found the address but there was no way to get in. Bill went next door to the bar and found someone to help. I just started ringing all of the door buzzers til someone answered. It was now after 4:00. Nothing to eat basically all day, used up all of our water bottles, and I had a screaming headache. Now I too was an un-happy camper. Bill got a hold of the credit card company that was tied with the Uber acc. Now we had to find a phone store to see if they would put the money we pre-paid for a chip here on hold until we could get another ph. No deal. Even after I took them the receipts, and chip holder. I don’t understand as they had it all in front of the them on the computer. The man said,” it is not possible.” So I told them that we would need to buy a new phone but it wasn’t going to be from them. BLAH!!! The apt is cute but small. Thank goodness there is an amazing roof top space. The good thing about going to the ph. store was I heard a band in the street and ran out to see what was going on. Pretty good band for a bunch of” street walkers”. LOL Seeing and hearing this lightened my day considerably.
super new bus 
with no air!!!! 
buses at the statiton 
FIRST SIGHT OF THE FOOT HIILS 
street band 
festivties 
first night in Cuenca both Mi and PTY plates 
Must be home! 
84 steps down to the river
Jan. 7th, 2020 Tues.-Up and walking by 8:00. We did some grocery shopping and hit the local fruit and veggie market. Had an amazing meal of fresh pork at the market. We will be going back there again soon. All kinds of yummy eats there. Then up to the town square to find the tourist bureau and get a map as we no longer had google maps on a ph. My ph. is not unlocked. We found the flower market, bought a bottle of holy water, I was suppose to be asking for Water of the flowers, the artisans market, a huge church, and bought a phone. One Bill got all of his stuff reloaded things got a little better. Cooked first meal, spaghetti.
Guanabana 
RAINBOW TROUT 
Chicharones yum 
Porky Pig 
cops 
Where our lunch came from 
Lunch, oh ya baby!! 
a buck for five 
church door 
unique designs
Jan. 8th, 2020 Wed- Morning walk goes without saying. What a nice place to walk. Along the river, etc. The weather is perfect here. Almost identical to where we used to stay in the mountains in Panama. We found some more churches that will need further exploring. Perhaps they will all be open on Sunday. I finally got my cup of Flor de agua. Not a whole lot of taste but the nuns make it so it must be good for ya. Bill was finally ready for a cocktail in the afternoon so we went thirty steps out the back door and had one. Turns out the owner is living in the same facility we are and is a gringo originally from Albuquerque. He has been here for 10 years. We think this will be a good place to watch the super bowl. For dinner Bill had thought a shawarma sounded good so we went a block down to an Indian restaurant but ended up getting garlic chicken that was out of this world. All of the good food here is going to make me fat. Good thing we decided to take the city stairs up to apt. 102 from the river.
agua de flors 
always hanging with the dogs 
one of many squares 
our new outfits 
other traditional dress 
Indian Garlic chicken
Jan. 9th, 2020 Thurs- Well, well. I should have learned by now to watch what you wish for. This morning was a good example. We decided to take our morning walk down stream to find where another river dumps in, and a big Inca historical site. Left at 9:30. Well, we found them both. Some how got turned around on the rivers walking back and ended up miles out of the way. So, what started out as an hour and a half walk turned into over three. We figure we walked over 6 miles. We were both pooped, hungry and tired, when we finally got back after 1:00. Had some lunch and a rest to re-charge. I slept for three hours. Headed out for some fresh bananas, eggs, dinner. A simple fried chicken and fries for $2.00 was good enough for tonight. Too bushed to care.
Inca find 
laundry day on the river 
Jan.10,2020 Fri.- This morning’s walk took us to the North of our flat. We found another huge mercado, two plazas with local goods, saw some amazing gowns, cherries from Chile, we entered a couple of churches and climbed the 156 steps up the tower at the “New Church”, which is called that only because it isn’t finished yet. They have been working on it for 100 years. A good lunch and rest before walking across the river to two museums,and hitting the large grocery store. Dinner with Sangria.
roof top view 
cherries from Chile are HUGE 
cheap pottery 
beautiful church door 
old iron lunge 
old exray 
birthing bed 
incubator 
Jan. 11, 2020 Sat- Wow, what a fun filled, music packed, swinging day! Our goal today was to find the ancient stone cave ovens and the bakery district. We found the old ruins but not the bakeries. Unless they weren’t open that early in the morning. We continues north headed to a different section of town. Well, as luck would have it we stumbled onto the Fiesta Los Ninos parade. What a sight! All kinds of dancers, bands, “floats”, costumes, etc. The parade lasted about and hour and a half. How fun. After all of that cultur I was in the mood to try a traditional favorite. It is very similar to whipped egg whites and sugar with a little extra fruit liquid thrown in. SO YUMMY!!!! Needing to walk that off we walked towards the third large indoor market to see if they had anything different than the other two. I did find a bunch of local chocolate items, and bought a little to try. This has no sugar and in very bitter mostly used in cooking, coffee, hot chocolate, etc. Upstairs was more of the roasted pork. Who could resist another plate of that? It was now after 1:00 and time to rest. The afternoon we took our first bus ride up the south side of the mountain to the highest view point here in Cuenca called TURI. 8421 ft.elevation. Nice view. We walked up more stairs once there to get a little higher and to take a ride on a swing that goes out over the cliff. That was not as scary as I had thought it would be, but it is on the top things to do list to I had to of course. We had something to drink, my first hot chocolate. Once again with the natural cocoa. I added a lot of sugar and it was delicious. Probably not my last. Came back hoping to watch the playoff games, but the satellite was acting up and was only able to keep tabs on the scoring of the second game. We have had a very busy first week here in Cuenca and are going to start venturing out of the city in the next week. Going up for some aqua baths and I think the nature preserve/zoo. The effects of Monday’s incident have faded but still in the back of Bill’s mind.
ancient ovens 
little Andes gals 
hope this is lo cal 
gotta have the pig 
tree house at top 
ready for push off 
swing over the cliff 
Turi village
The Lauers Travel 
Sorry to hear about Bill’s phone. It IS a huge deal, especially overseas. Did you get a new one? And what exactly is Agua de Flores? I know from the name that it’s flower water, but what is it used for?
LikeLike
Pítimas water is good for nerves
Oct 16, 2017 COR Community 0
Pítimas water is good for nerves
In the Plazoleta de las Flores, in the Historic Center of Cuenca, in a small room of the Monastery of Carmen de la Asunción, the place of “La Tradicional Agua de Pítimas” is located. A large number of people approach this small door all day, where for 0.50 cents they acquire a glass of this medicinal drink.
There are varieties of water with sweet and without sweet, which Francisco Quizhpe, in charge of serving the premises, told us, serves for the nervous system, stress, for the heart and helps calm the suffering.
The water is made by the Carmelite nuns, and knows that it is made on the basis of medicinal mountains, flowers and Valerian. He said that he has been attending the business for 20 years, but in total the place will have about 70 years or more of history, he calculated.
On the name of the water, Francisco Quizhpe said that it is due to the way of ordering the drink of the country people who spoke Quichua, who instead of saying “give me a little more water” said “give me one more piti”. From there the name was derived with which this drink is known until today.
His clients are especially people from the rural sector, such as Carmen Guaillas from the El Valle parish, who went to this place last Thursday to drink a glass of water from pítimas and also took a liter to his house, worth $ 2. .
She points out that water is good for nerves, and that she feels calm when she drinks it. The tradition of drinking this water, he learned from his mother.
Another client is Dolores Velecela from Canton Azogues, which carries the water in greater quantity, for her place in the San Francisco market of that city, where she said that it cures the horror and also gives this water to her clients for the nerves.
More products for sale
But in addition to medicinal water, this place also offers other products made by the religious such as: consecrate wine, white wine, blackberry and passion fruit wine, honey, pigeon jello for people who have weakness, syrup Multivitamin, healing lotion for muscle aches, and radish syrup for respiratory and tonsil problems.
Also candles, candles, incense, oasis for floral arrangements, petroleum jelly to light it in the form of a candle, bibles, hosts, etc. (COR) (I)
Francisco Quizhpe
” The water of pítimas serves for the nervous system, the stress, for the heart and helps to calm the suffering”.
LikeLike