Cuenca, ah, cuenca

By the end of this trip, the longest stasis I will have had is a week and that will be my week in Cuenca. If all things were as I wished I would have spent two weeks here, but alas even vacations are subjected to constricted schedules and logistical ballets. I think Cuenca is like SF. The chicos are skate rats (although who knows how they skate on broken concrete and cobble stone), there are a fair share of leather bears, it is foggy, expensive and has hella tourists. I like it for most of those reasons and because there is an endless stream of things I am enamored by.

Cuenca is known for its colonial structures and just like the SF victorian houses, the colonial ones are owned by the rich folks and protected by the municipality. So all of us tourists walk around this one area, think we have had our communion with Cuenca and fly back to our respective homes. Of course Cuenca is far more complicated then the tourist area where I have spent most of my time.

On the morning of my birthday I woke up earlier than I should have and accidently joined morning mass at the main cathedral. This is what it was like: (while looking at these photos you have to imagine this echoing gothic music wafting around this scene)

The other thing Cuenca is known for is the hats, which are know to the rest of the world as the Panama Hat. The Lonely Planet version of this story is basically, these hats have always been made here. During the building of the Panama Canal they were exported to Panama and hence they became mis-named The Panama Hat.

Standard and Superfino Weave