Cuenca at New Year

From Inga Pirca it was about another hour to Cuenca. We passed loads of people selling or carrying 'Ano Viejos' (Old Years). These are a bit like Guys that we burn on bonfire night. People make up models that resemble someone they know. They write a 'Testimonio', a will (that's what it translates to but it isn't really like a will at all), that is like a whole load of new years resolutions. At midnight when we would all be singing Auld Langsyne (spelling?) they will burn the Ano Viejo and drink a toast.

As we arrived in Cuenca it started to rain and it was getting dark so we couldn't appreciate the city until the next day. There seems to be some sort of civic pride that we haven't noticed in other places, the streets are clean, there is no grafitti and people don't drop rubbish. People greet each other in the streets and there is no pushing or shoving. The air is clean and the climate is warm, but not too hot. The buildings and the roads are well maintained and it is just ... lovely, calm, refreshing.

The architecture here is very Spanish with some very fancy buildings.. you can see some examples in the first couple of photos. The Cathedral was an amazing building but, for me, the inside was spoilt by a huge gaudy statue of the pope and the many blood strewn statues of Christ on the cross. In another church (where I didn't take any photos as a service was in progress) the altar was adorned with flashing coloured stars like gaudy Christmas tree lights - very strange.

We at last found a place with a good internet connection and managed to upload nearly a thousand photos (both mine and my mums) whilst sitting sipping English tea, glasses of wine or cokes... all so very civilized!

New Years eve was a real treat. Everybody was out in the traditional clothes, kids had been dressed up to parade in the streets and there were lots of fantastic people to photograph as they also watched the parades. Not much to say about it really, you just have to look at the photos to appreciate the variety in the traditional dress from the different regions. Later in the evening there was lots of singing and dancing in the streets and the burning of the Ano Viejos. Loads of people were out and about but in lots of small groups, nothing like Trafalgar Square with throngs of people and all a bit dangerous. Of course there was lots of drinking going on but it was all very good natured and we didn't see or hear of any trouble. The only dangerous thing was the fireworks and crackers that all the kids have. Some had hand held tubes that fired out firework stars about every 5 seconds. These flew across the roads, mostly into the air, but were occassionally misdirected into other groups of people. I'm sure there must have been some injuries.

All in all I think Cuenca would be the sort of place that I could live if we came back here, but I'm sure that Celso would prefer to be near the jungle - the climate in Cuenca is just so much easier to bear!

We left by about 9:30am on New Year's day to head for Guayaquil.