Cuenca and Loja

We arrived in Cuenca in the pouring rain and checked into our hostel. After a bad nights sleep due to the bright Christmas lights outside our window, making it basically daylight, and the noisy traffic on the road, we decided to spend some of the next day seeing the city and then get a 4pm bus to our next place, Loja. Apparently Cuenca is a very popular place for expats, and although it was fairly nice to walk around the streets, there wasn't too much in the town to keep us occupied and we ended up chilling in a park for a while before picking up our bags and heading for the bus terminal. 

Pup in pyjamas in a coffin shop

Ask for a coffee with milk, get hot milk and a jar of instant coffee

We had originally planned to get through these cities quickly in order to make it to the coast of Peru for new years eve, and had planned only 1 day in Loja, enough time to see the city and a free walking tour. There was also a viewpoint on top of a tower of the city gate which we walked to, and botanical gardens which we took a public bus to, only to find out when we arrived that it was closed between Christmas and New year. 

The city gate

Castle-y

View of Loja from the top

We got to the meeting point for the free walking tour, at the tourist information centre, with no sign of anyone else waiting or a guide. We asked at the information desk and were assured that it was happening, and sure enough about 15 minutes later a guide appeared. Looks like we were the only ones on the walking tour then. Can't really give an anonymous tip with that ratio.

Some kind of tree jumper

The guide took us around the streets and the plazas, showing us the place where cloister nuns still live- once they enter they can't leave the building, pretty much completely separated from the outside world except for a hatch where people can come to get traditional medicines that the nuns grow in their garden. There was also a music school which was originally the first high school in Loja, with a statue of the man who founded the school in the middle. Except that when the statue was being made it was mixed up with another statue of a guy from Chile and sent to the wrong place, the one that stands there is a random guy from Chile, nobody knows what the actual guy looks like. He also took us into one of the churches which had the biggest nativity scene in Ecuador and definitely put any other ones we had ever seen to shame- it was effectively a nativity village, complete with animal sound effects, moving figurines and even running water and lighting changing from night to day.

Loja is known for its music, and our guide informed us that even the bin lorry is musical and that the tune is a recording of the mayor whistling. 

A fair amount of time spent making this nativity

Night time in Bethlehem!

The guide also explained that every Thursday in the main plaza there is a free display from local musicians and dancers for anyone to attend, which luckily was that evening. Also it was a shame we were not staying for new years, people burn dummies with masks of famous people or characters to represent burning the past and making way for a new year and men dress in drag on the streets and ask people for beer money. 

Tiny musicians in oversized ponchos

We thought about it, it did sound interesting and we were both exhausted from almost 2 months on the road and jonno recovering from a stomach bug. Maybe we should stop for a few days, see the new years celebrations in Ecuador and then move on to Peru. 

If we were staying a few days we wanted somewhere that we could actually rest, and we managed to find an apartment in Loja for about $35 a night. It was about 2km from the hotel we were staying in, so we checked out and decided it was walkable. We knew it was going to be up a bit of a hill but didn't realise until we started that it was about 200 steps up which was pretty tiring with all our bags. When we arrived at the apartment, sweaty and sore, we were pleasantly surprised. A modern apartment with great views of the city, with a full kitchen and sofas and even an office corner with a computer. The perfect place to recouperate. And this is exactly what we did- apart from a couple of trips into town for food shopping, we spent a few days just enjoying not having to do much (apart from a lot of blogging to catch up on!) 

Blog headquarters

On new year's eve, we decided that we would head into town at about 9pm to see what was going on. We expected things to be happening around the main plaza if anywhere. As we walked though the streets, we saw a lot of dummies lined up and some taped to the front of cars. There was also bit queues of traffic building up on the streets, as the roads were being blocked off by men in wigs and minidresses, who were stopping every car and humping them, sometimes even climbing on the bonnet on all fours, until they were handed some money and then they let the car pass. Weirdly enough this hadn't put people off driving through the streets, and if anything there were more cars, almost as if people wanted to have their vehicle violated, even bringing their small children along for the ride. 

Selling the masks for the dummies in the marketplace

Bundled into the back of vans

And taped to the front of cars

Men in wigs and dresses accosting cars

Apart from these strange displays, nothing else was open and the main plaza was pretty much deserted. Maybe this is all there was. After walking around for about an hour and not finding much else except for a caterpillar train driving around erratically and a small fairground set up with stalls selling more dummies and masks, we were about to give up and wander back to the apartment. Just in case we were missing anything obvious, Jonno decided to ask a passer by if there was a party happening anywhere, to which the guy pointed towards an area a kilometre away at the city gate. We walked there and found there was a concert going on, so we decided to watch the concert with some kind of latino boy band playing, by this point there was only an hour until midnight. As we were flagging and it was waaay past my bedtime, we sat against one of the walls of the city gate to watch the concert and other people dancing, and a couple of minutes before midnight thought we should probably stand up and join in with the crowd. It was lucky that we did, as at midnight the tower above us exploded with fireworks, and a shower of sparks came down the walls, landing where we had just been sitting. We took a few steps further back, slightly concerned we were still far too close to the fireworks, ducking behind a stage to avoid the debris falling from the sky. After the fireworks had finished, we walked back through the streets towards the apartment, although now we had to dodge fireworks being set off in the street and fires in the middle of the road where the dummies had been set alight. Before midnight the streets had been filled with music and people, and on the walk back the music had stopped and streets were either deserted or had people somberly watching the fires or clearing up piles of ash from the streets- it felt like some kind of apocalyptic warzone. There were also children leaping over the flames, definitely no health and safety here! 

The moment the clock rolls over to midnight and the crazy fireworks ensuing!

Burning dummies

One more day to chill in our lovely apartment and then it was time to leave, even though we could have happily stayed there for another week. 

View of Loja from the apartment

A very early start to get to the bus terminal, and Jonno still being half asleep found a coffee vendor and got a very sweet black coffee to try and maintain consciousness. He had gotten halfway through it when we were approached by a grubby old man who smelt very strongly of alcohol, asking for money. When we said no, the man instead took the coffee from Jonno's hands and walked off with it, laughing with glee. Seriously, the crime in south America....

Poor dog just missed the bus..