Cuenca Museum Day

 Two posts in a row!

Thursday our plan was to stroll around and visit some museums, but first, we had to start with chocolate made from Ecuadorian cacao at Paccari cafe!

The Paccari cafe building with early 20th century architectural detail and decor—painted tiles, frescos, chandeliers and narrow staircases

Even the bathrooms are elegant

After our hot chocolate and brownie, we walked over to tthe Cuenca Bienal Arts building. The city hosts a biennial art contest for Latin American artists. The offices for the biennial contest are located in an historic building with beautiful ornate tiles and murals. The city arts organization purchased and refurbished the building and now give tours. It was initially the residence of a photographer named Pasántez León and his family. He used the murals as backdrops for some of his pictures.

The inner atrium

The family had to sell part of the house at one point. Here’s where they put the dividing wall!

We continued our walk through the Plaza de San Sebastián.

A few blocks of walking and we came upon the Mirador del Barranco viewpoint overlooking the Rio Tomebamba. This plaza-like area is also the street of quirky art:

A beautiful view of the city and mountains 

Pots and pans up top— hmmm?

The Museo del Sombrero de Paja Toquilla was our next stop. First though there was the drama of the fender bender. Actually the dent was almost nonexistent. 

We were curious to see how everything would turn out, though. We hung out for a few minutes watching and listening to the symphony of honks and horn blasts. In the end, the bus driver just got back into the bus and left.

Our first stop on Calle Largo after wading through the crowds at the bus stops, wasn’t quite what we thought it would be. We thought it would be… well, a museum. Really it was a big hat shop posing as a museum. I was disappointed because I’ve been hoping at every turn to see up close how these hats are woven from start to finish. We browsed and then continued onward.

Another museum I had on my list to see was the Centro Interamericano de Artes Populares (CIDAP). 

I read that CIDAP was a museum of women’s traditional textile work. Alas, it was a small exhibit with some, but not much, contemporary pieces of folk and textile art, with some for sell. I enjoyed looking, but I was done quickly. 

We headed down Hermano Miguel Street to wind our way back to the hotel and look for a place to get a late lunch along the way. This was the street of bookstores! I was very happy to see them and popped in one of them to browse. Richard had a different reaction to my enthusiasm:

A couple of shops further down, Richard found a wonderful restaurant, Warmikuna Cocina Taller. The proprietor offers cooking classes in addition to a great lunch. I had quinoa and Richard had goat stew. For a drink I ordered something called Yaguana.

 It was so good! And it was neon purple! The ingredients were some things I’d never heard of—ataco and babaco for starters. I asked the server what these ingredients were, so she took me over to the kitchen and showed me. The ataco was a bright red frozen juice made from steeping small amaranth berries, if I understood correctly. There was an Amazonian fruit similar to cinnamon. There was also something like tapioca pearls. I am always grateful when someone takes the time to explain things to me. 

Earlier in the week, we took one of those double decker bus tours to see the city. Here are some pics: