Jan 8: Cuenca + Guinea Pig + Awesome locals

Jan 8: Cuenca: todo un mundo (Cuenca, we are one world). This colonial town is truly impressive - the city is a UN heritage site because of how the downtown is completely preserved from the Colonial days. The city streets today are no wider than they were 150 years ago - all cobblestone and all the houses are all painted in bright colors - and especially the blue/pink/brown churches around the downtown square.

Life is so amazing here that we don't want to leave anymore. Everything is so cheap and exquisite...the landscape is so majestic, the city so beautiful, and the people so collegial and welcoming. It is such a stark contrast to the stressful lives we lead in NYC.



We went to savor a local specialty for lunch - roasted guinea pig. We were the only customer in this family style restaurant - tres estreas - for their lunch hour. Before we started speaking, they already brought out a full guinea big for us to examine. We then witnessed the guinea pig being washed and cleansed of its inner organs - and subsequently roasted....
Unfortunately, even though guinea pig meat is extremely delicate - the psychological trauma prevented us from feeling like we had a full lunch meal. So we tried out this other very quaint exotic desert place just so we can savor Latin postres - lots of fruits: papayas + figs + helados from really fresh vacas milk!






The most thrilling part of the city experience was the cultural shock while visiting a large open-air supermarket. All the fresh fruits/vegetables/diary products/meat grown in the local region. And most of all you see all these Native American families sitting there selling their family farm's produce (usually three generations - the grandma, the mother and the daughter).
The place was so exciting for a number of reasons: 1) the dirt cheap fruit/vegetables/dessert we can get and 2) we can practice our spanish by bargaining. I felt like I was experiencing what I've always remembered from 9th grade Spanish textbook - teaching tourists how to bargain in local markets.



When I started bargain just for bargains sake - I quickly realized that it is a really stupid thing: 1) the Native American vendors realized that I was not going to buy anything so they would stop talking to me. THe first thing they ask once you even approach them is "how much do you want"; and also 2): I realize that these native american vendors do not charge "foreigners" at a higher price after watching what the locals get - it's dirt cheap already. For example, we got 6 mangos for 1 dollar; 20 bananas for 1 dollar;



They also have ginormous chocolate sheets and most bizarre of all, raw ostrich eggs as appetizer or desert. We were curious enough to try out - raw ostrich egg mixed with carrots and lemon....probably the most healthy drink I've ever had. We also bought fresh milk and made banana sundae at the hostel.

The part about the city and the country that made us really emotional was the family style restaurant. There is this family we frequented for two nights who were so nice to us that they would cook anything we ask and would offer us all the local stuff that we should try out. They just make all the dishes for us base on what they have in their refrigerator - and the first night we asked whether they have chivo - goat or not - and they said no, and so next dinner they bought goat meat expecting that we would come over again for dinner.
From sitting in that family restaurant for two nights, three hours each, we even observed the Ecuadorian family dynamics and almost became friends with their kids.