South America,  Ecuador,  Travel

Cuenca, Guayaquil (2)

July 10, 2021 /

The small city of Cuenca is a 3.5-hour bus ride to the southeast of Guayaquil. The altitude is similar to that of the capital Quito, almost 3 kilometers. Fortunately, there are not so many up and down slopes. This small town is beautiful and the architecture is very distinctive. At a certain moment, it feels like Córdoba, a small town in southern Spain. The city is full of small shops: clothing stores, shoe stores, nail salons, barber shops, rice shops, key shops, printing shops, toy shops, etc. Many stores are one by one, and I don't know how to make money. I was surprised to see the light rail bus on the road. It is said that it was delayed for six years due to government corruption, and it was only built two years ago.

It takes about an hour to drive from Cuenca to Cajas National Park. On the long-distance bus, I saw a Chinese movie dubbed in Spanish. There are big names, including Andy Lau, Zhang Hanyu, Matt Damon, and the duel in "Game of Thrones". Blind eyes / Actors Pedro Pascal, Jing Tian, Lu Han, Eddie Peng, etc. of the first season of "Narcos". When I came back and checked, it turned out to be the magic movie "The Great Wall" directed by Zhang Yimou in 2016. Although I only watched it for more than half an hour in the car, I couldn't understand the Spanish dubbing, but I feel that just watching the special effects acting is a bad movie, and the Douban score is really low. I remember talking to my local friends two days ago about the various imported films I watched along the way on long-distance buses. Whether they were Chinese or American, they were basically war, violence and bloodshed. A friend said that Ecuador basically does not have its own films, all of which are imported foreign blockbusters. All films have no subtitles and are dubbed in Spanish. That's why most people don't speak English. I remember the Swiss grandfather I met in the last one-day tour on Galapagos Island mentioned why people in many of their Nordic countries are so good at English, because they have never dubbed English movies when they introduced them, and they have watched English movies since they were children. grown up.

Cajas National Park is in the mountains, about 4,000 meters above sea level, and the temperature is much lower. Fortunately, I brought a friend's coat from Cuenca to wear. Yesterday when I passed by the bus, it was blue sky and white clouds, but today it was cloudy and windy, and the photos were very dark. Generally, before entering the national park, you need to register your name, age, country, passport number, etc. at the gate. I asked for a map and decided to take the No. 1 hiking route. When I first came across a couple of climbers on the trail, I tried to keep up with them, but when they stopped to rest I could only pass them. I didn't see anyone for the next hour. I guess I took a wrong route from route 1 to another route. At this moment, I happened to see two people resting not far ahead, so I wanted to go over and ask for directions, but I had to walk through a very muddy wetland. After getting very close to them, they said they were going to keep going, not going back, and go out through the other entrance gate, and I could follow them. They have a lot of experience climbing here every week, so I'll just follow them. First, I had to take a big step across a pool of mud, but my legs were almost short. I took a step, but one shoe got stuck in the mud and my foot came out. The two laughed for a long time, seeing that I couldn't pull my shoes out with my hands, they helped me pull them out.

The two are Venezuelans who moved here five years ago and now work as waiters in restaurants and bars. After walking with them for an hour or two, there was a sign that said no entry, but they insisted on taking this route in order to cut corners, and they assured me that it was totally fine. Fortunately, they often walk here, and they have a strong sense of direction, but in the end, in order to take a bus on the highway, they have to cross three or four private farms or something. Fortunately, those railings are built for cattle and sheep, people think about it. It's not difficult to turn over. If it wasn't for these two locals taking me, I would probably have returned the same way, let alone trespassing on private territory. If this were in the United States, I would have seen the farmer come out with a shotgun, I don't want to get into trouble in a strange country. When crossing the farm, I saw a few farmers, and they saw that we were completely unresponsive. I also saw an alpaca and a white plant that I had never seen before. They said the name was "donkey ears" in Spanish. It looked hard, but when I touched it, it was soft and fluffy.

Finally got to the highway, and after waiting for a long time, I got on a bus. When I got in the car, I realized that if we didn't exit the same national park entrance as we did, would the park workers think we were missing? If they don't check it, what's the use of the personal information registered at the park?

Back in the big city of Guayaquil, the city center is full of small commodity markets. Large lizards can be seen everywhere in the small park in front of the church. In the evening, my friend took me to Guayarte, a gathering place for young people with a strong artistic atmosphere. There are many very modern decorations, murals and restaurants here, which are very interesting.

The next morning a friend took me to the real Santa Ana Hill and climbed 444 steps to the lighthouse at the top. Yesterday, I followed the unreliable Google Maps and climbed up a hill next to it. It felt wrong, and there was no viewing platform.

In the past two days, my friend took me to the island of Isla Santay by bike across the bridge, where I saw a big fat crocodile. I also went to the wealthy area in the north and visited their very modern shopping malls. Thinking about the poor areas I have seen in other parts of Ecuador before, I feel that the gap between the rich and the poor is still very large. I ate more seafood and tried the fried chicken wings from KFC for a different taste, which was better than the American ones.

Since I came to the southern seaside city, I have eaten a lot of seafood, eating all kinds of ceviche and seafood rice. I also tasted the local speciality encebollado, which is albacore tuna fillet soup with tapioca, tomato, onion, green pepper, fried corn beans and other ingredients. The locals also drink this to hangover. Last night, I ate the shawarma kebab in the Middle East in a different way. I didn't expect that there are many such restaurants here, just like Chinese restaurants.

  • ceviche con camarón
  • arroz de pulpo


  • corvina con curry
  • guatita
  • granadilla
  • encebollado

  • arroz con camarón
  • shawarma
  • pan de yuca
  • KFC

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