Cuenca!

True story, I´m only writing this blog post so soon after a long weekend of traveling... because I have by far one of the COOLEST photos of myself ever, ever, ever to show. It came towards the end of our trip.. so look for it at the end of this post.Yup, so we went to Cuenca this past weekend. We left Friday afternoon and got back yesterday (Tuesday) night.. Oh man, I´m in love with place. It has that "small town" feel to it.. you know the kind of place where everyone is super friendly and you see the same peopleseveral times a day (which we did). The kind of place that I would love to live for part of my life (not my whole life).
As always, I will update through pictures & captions (the captions will come before the picture its referring to). Looking through my pics now, I wish I took better pictures to document our trip... But oh well, enjoy some of the ones I have.

So we arrived in Cuenca Friday night.. and took a walk to find dinner. This is one of the first things I saw. Brought back amazing memories from the best summer of my life.(When I lived in Santa Monica with 71 other amazing people on a summer project) Nope, we didnt stay at that hotel. I acutally forgot to take a picture of our Hostal... but it was incredible! Great rooms, and the sweetest woman ever owned it!

The next day we went to the "Old Cathedral" to get a tour. I coudln´t take pictures inside of the church..so here are some of the ones I took on the outside..Minus the confessionary, I´ll admit the church was pretty boring. So I tried to find interesting, random things to take pics of..

Afterwards we walked over to the daily flower plaza. I would have bought some, except they would have died by the time I got back to Quito.

And we saw a building I´d like my future house to look like..

And then ladies and genetleman.. we went to a SUSHI resturant.

So so yummy. And so was the green tea icecream I had for dessert:

Then we did some shopping. I didnt take pictures of us shopping. (Photography and shopping.. two things I love. And two things I cannot do at the same time) But I did take some pictures while we walked through the town.

After shopping we ended the day with dinner at a Mexican Resturant. The food wasnt that good, but I did sign my name on the wall!

The next day, we ventured to a couple surrounding towns of Cuenca.. Gualeceo and Chordeleg to be exact. Lonely planet suggested that there was some good shopping in both of these towns. I think we went on the wrong day because all we found in the first town (Gualeceo) was a huge livestock market. I took one picture, because there were absolutely NO tourists.. and I didnt want to stick out.

And then we went to Chordeleg.. which is said to be a great place to buy silver jewelry. Jewerly and much more! We spent the whole day shopping in this little town. Well, shopping AND watching Spain WIN THE WORLD CUP 2010! Here´s one of the town´s signs. (Joyeria = Jewelry Store).

Sunday, it was back to Cuenca.. where I took some more pictures around town.

And where we went to visit the Museo del Arte Moderno (Musuem of Modern Art).

I´m piece wasnt "art". But I took a picture of it.. because one day I would like to own it in my future home.

Thank God for self timers..

And then we went to the coffee shop across the street. My moccachino was amazing, the table decorations were adorable (see below) and I´m pretty sure I´m going to elope with the owner, and just work alongside him at the coffee shop... so if you dont see me this coming semester at school, you know where to find me.

Seriously though.. I´m going to search high and low for flowers and a jar like this one.. and then put them all over my room/future apartment. (PS. I am so proud of the below picture, look at that reflection in the glass!)

Then we crossed the river to find the University of Cuenca!

Look at the sky in this next picture!

Apparently Ecuadorians REALLY like this guy.. his painting was everywhere on this campus.

I took pictures of everything that seemed familar to me on my campus..

So we came across this building with the door open. I started to go inside, and
Sharada says: "Maybe we shouldn´t"
Me: "Why not?"
Sharada: "What if we´re not supposed to?"
Me: "Sometimes I like to do things until I´m not not to"
Sharada: "Why??"
Me: "Because that way, I actually get to do them!"

So I ventured inside.. to find out I was in the archeticutre building. Here is one of the classrooms!

Then on the way back to town, we found this CRAZY creepy art cafe museum thing. Crazy creepy as in.. fake body parts hanging everywhere.

Yeah, we stayed in there for all of about 30 seconds. And then I found this pretty display outside.. for another art gallery.. that was unfortunately closed. I bet this one would have been normal.

THEN we went to a store where they specialize in making Panama Hats. They give you a tour and everything!

Then there´s this was this cheesy photo display upstairs. We paid for a photo, when really we should have just stuck with this free photo (below) that we were able to take with our digital camera.

I didnt buy a hat for myself, cause I didn´t see one I liked.. But if this dress was sale I would have TOTALLY bought it.

And finally, the next day we ended our Cuenca experience by going to the Banco del Central Museum. Now I´ll be honest, I´m not the biggest advocates for museums... but I was in LOVE with this museum. They had a great Latin America art gallery. And this AMAZING ethnography exhibit that displayed every region of Ecuador (including the people, clothing, and their activities). And THEN they had this unbelivable park outside that displayed how Cuenca used to be when Incans lived there. We spent hours there!

And NOW.. here comes the highlight of my weekend.... I RODE A LLAMA!
When I saw this little guy, this old man, and this llama.. I was determined to do the same thing..

So understand this. That security guard was a level ten creeper/flirt. After our "Buneos Tardes" and "Where are you froms" he immediately turned to Sharada and asked if she wanted a boyfriend. He made some other creepy comments, while he moved closer and closer to us (you know when people get in your personal space, and you politely take a step back, just for them to take another step closer. Yup this guy right here).. and then FINALLY he asked if I wanted to get on the llama for a picture.

I´ve realized I´m pretty brave when I picture doing something in my head.. and then when its time to do it in real life, all nerves set in...

Bracing myself...

Okay, see this super embarassing picture with my butt in the air. Let me give you the behind scenes view of this photo.. .. I would swing my halfway leg over the llama, then return that same leg the back to the bench, explain to Sharada how nervous I was, and then receive encouragment from my audience there. Okay have that scene in your head? Now Repeat it17 times.

Soon enough I told the little guy to show me how its done...

And then I FINALLY got on.

And stayed on long enough to take a few pictures...

And then Mr. Creepy Security Guard decided to let go of the rope. I freaked out. The llama bent his head down to eat grass, causing the little boy to fall off & me to leap off the llama as well.