I’m in a town where at 5’5” I’m the tallest person on the
street. Where the fashion is stuck in the 90s (hooray, no more trying to fit in
with the chic Europeans!) Where there are no traffic regulations, and if there
are, they are not enforced at all. My senses are awakened and my mind is
challenged. Even though I’ve been here before, I feel as if Cuenca is brand-new
again. Yesterday, I found myself just smiling, walking down the narrow sidewalks,
roaming through this world where 2013 hasn’t quite arrived yet, but where the
people are as warm as the sun on the equator. And not once did I feel stared or
glared at or judged. Unless of course, I’m happily lost in this wonderland.
Which could be quite possible. I love being somewhere new,
and let’s be honest, I’m honey-mooning right now. I feel that there is so much
to explore! Walking down Gran Colombia, I noticed that most stores don’t have
doors, just an open storefront where passersby just meander along and stop in
for whatever the store is offering…DVDs, shoes, or pollo, pollo, pollo. As a full-out vegetarian, I worry a bit that
I’m going to have difficulty finding a suitable diet to sustain myself. The
smells of carne-filled humitas are common here, and the $1.25 almuerzos would be more tempting if the
main dish didn’t feature a hearty helping of chicken. Still, I’m not too
worried, as I know I can find food for myself here. The markets offer great
produce and other things, and if I need something more substantial, I can
always resort to the SUPERMAXI (or as I like to think of it: gringo-land.) As
much as I want to integrate myself as much as possible into this culture, I
know I will never be diving into a plate of cuy-ever.
Still, my wallet is definitely much happier here. I bought
an agua sin gas at a shop for a
whopping 29 cents, and then gave my mother a treat, since I knew she was off
from work that day. I slipped into a cabina,
and called her. She was ecstatic that I was able to call her from Ecuador and
asked how often I could do it. I laughed, and told her while it’s no trouble to
do this, I’d rather have us email each other. I assured her that I was safe, I
have a place I’m staying at, and yes, I’ll make sure I take care of myself.
After that I thought it’d be wise to get some sleep. Not to
mention I was sweating pretty badly (it somehow was now comfortably in the 70s
and I was wearing some heavy clothing for that kind of weather) and I
remembered that Cuenca was the city of 4 seasons in 1 day. Well, I was just in
3 continents in 27 hours, so there! And with that, I crawled into bed at
12:30pm and slept. And slept and slept and slept. And had a dream about a
talking dog, and slept some more.
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