Cuenca Nights

For some reason I thought that after the Winter in Chile and Argentina, we would have hot weather in most of the South American continent. By hot I mean at least as warm as our July summer temperatures in Toronto. I'm not sure why I thought this but I was wrong. The diverse topography of this continent makes for a more Spring-like climate than Summer in many areas. Most cities in Bolivia due to altitude (almost every city was 2500 m above sea level) were warm in the sun but much cooler in the shade. I think the hottest weather we have had would be in Nazca, so basically the desert. Cusco and the Sacred Valley (in the highlands of Peru), Cuenca and where we will be going soon, Quito, (in the highlands of Ecuador) also have a Spring-like climate. So the one sweater that I brought with me after leaving Argentina has been incredibly useful. I guess you can blame it on the Inca Empire and their obsession with building cities in the mountains.

We intentionally haven't been doing too much in Cuenca. We spent a few afternoons just exploring the city, and visiting some sites like the Museo del Banco Central, and the Turi Mirador, which has a beautiful view of the entire city. Between eating home-cooked meals (which is a delight in itself), trying out some new TV shows ( Orange is the New Black is pretty good), and getting caught up with the Daily Show, I have been a happy camper! Ramanan's been training at Alliance Cuenca and taught another class but this time it was in English.

We went to Amaru Zoo on a sunny afternoon. The Zoo is built into the mountains so you have to do a bit of climbing to follow the trail. Some of the highlights of what we saw were the Andean Bear (each individual has unique facial markings), the Capybara, a large rodent, which I have eaten in Brazil but never actually seen until now, and Indian Peacock, totally not native but so lovely to look at. 

We also saw the Tigrillo, a native cat, and the Tapir, both endangered species. Right in the middle of our visit, it started to pour and luckily we were able to find shelter. We were near the monkey exhibit so while we waited for the rain to stop so did a group of monkeys near us. I have mixed feelings about zoos mainly because of the conditions the animals are kept in. This one wasn't too bad because many of the animals are in relatively open spaces with more mobility than I've seen in most zoos, and some birds even are able to fly around freely. Although the weather didn't cooperate and the walk downhill was a little slippery after the rain, we had a great time.