Cuenca shiuts down on Sunday, actually on Saturday afternoon. He guide books recommend making excursions to three villages outside of Cuenca for the market experience. It can all be done by bus for under a dollar per ride.
I taxied to the terminal and found my bus. True to form, you start out and go uphill to get out of town and then it is up,down, up, down, curvy roads with lots of stops picking up people. Soon the bus was packed tight. I eventually gave up my seat to a little old woman with a cane. I skipped the first town, where the market was said to be far from the bus stop and all foods, more about observing the locals in action.
The second town, Chordeleg, is about jewelry. There must be a hundred jewelry shops, half of them quality.
They also have a food market
I was beginning to wonder why I came. After a couple of hours I went to the bus stop and was told it would be 20 min more. I went across the street for a lunch ($2:50), but the bus came early and I rushed out without time to get my change (so I paid double)
On to SigSig, known as the source of Panama hats. Guidebooks said you could tour the factory. At the terminal, they tell me you can walk to the factory. It is starting to rain and I walk to the main square (uphill) and am told to go back and take a left (downhill). I find nothing and an old woman tells me to follow the road out of town(uphill to get to itand then down a really long hill to the river). It is about ten more minutes and I find the place, but it is now raining steadily and the lunch pictured above is begging the fast exit. The factory is closed. Of course, it is Sunday! I catch a camioneta up the hill and he takes me to a shop, where I pay more for a hat than I saw them for in Quito, still no bathroom in sight, but I walk another ten min back to the bus stop and find one...no seat! I continue the bus loop through San Bartolome and El Valle back to Cuenca. It is about two hours returning over hill and dale. I got a sense of the outlying topography with a lot of farmland, steep farmland. The closer to Cuenca, the smaller the lots. Again, a packed bus. I try my hand at the city buses to get from the terminal to the hostal- Success!
Restaurants are predominately closed on Sunday, but I find an Arab/Indian joint and go for a birthday ice cream afterward. Incan ruins tomorrow?
At least I got my hat from the point of origin.
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