Carnaval in Cuenca

It is carnaval time in Cuenca and a totally different atmosphere. A lot of the people have left the city to go to their hometowns. The traffic is practically nonexistent compared to the way it usually is. Pedestrians definitely do not have the right of way here (or any rights). Drivers actually speed up if they see pedestrians coming. It took awhile but now we are used to it, sometimes we have to wait several minutes to cross the road. One thing that is hard to get used to is the pollution from the vehicles, especially the buses - black smoke pours out - no emission controls here.

There are no service groups for four days due to the Carnaval. It is understandable because anyone walking down the road is a target for water balloons, water guns or soap suds. Kids are in back of pick up trucks with their ammunition. We managed to only get a few splashes on us today.

Today we hopped on a city bus, the first one we saw, to see where it would take us. We went to a part of town quite a bit higher than we are. After about 20 minutes it was the end of the line end of the line and we had to get off. We crossed the road and waited for the next bus going back towards downtown. The bus system is very good here. You never have to wait long and it is only 25 cents. Now we just have to figure out which bus goes where but there are no bus schedules/routes that we could find.

For lunch we went to a restaurant called Cafe Austria, which caters to tourists. The daily special was bruchetta, filet minion with potatoes and veg, glass of red wine and fruit and chocolate fondue for dessert - $7.50. It was really good. We wonder sometimes if it is worth going to the trouble of cooking here. But of course, we do cook and every morning Lisa makes us a smoothie will all local fruit - pineapple, mango, strawberry, papaya, blackberries. You can buy all different kinds of frozen fruit concentrate which we put it as well. Delicious and nutritious!! And of course, inexpensive. Another favorite we make for lunch is guacamole. You can get 4-6 avocados for $1. Same thing for fresh tomatoes.

Well, we wish we could post a few pictures but the we still do not have good internet service. The Banos post took probably 2 hours to post 3 pictures. Maybe later.... manana as they say. Very frustrating though!!!