Extreme Ecuador....ok extreme for us.

We are now counting down our weeks until our return back to Canada. 6 months seemed like such a long time, yet here we are basically 3 weeks away from our return date. This is basically our last Saturday in Cuenca, as next week we will hopefully join the Tarqui Ward temple trip to the LDS Temple in Guayaquil.

Going up to the Bell tower of the Iglesia de Todos Santos

Saturday we did not have a set plan, just "Explore." We headed to Calle Larga, a long street (true to it's name) where one can find many museums. We saw this old church, and inquired the cost of visiting. Most churches in Cuenca are free, but this particular one is now more of a museum than a church. In La Iglesia de Todos los Santos they only offer mass on Sunday mornings, and most other days they have tours. We paid our entry fee, and were happily surprised by how well our guide spoke English...the kids, and Wyatt do try to practice their Spanish as much as they can, but in historical sites, it is nice for me (they don't care as much) when they can understand 100% of what is going on....actually I wish they could understand all the time....fine my Mother was right, I should have taught them Spanish!...that is a conversation for another day. The guide told us the site of this church was an old Canari Site, then an Inca sacred place, and then "The Spaniards came, and destroyed everything, and put a church on top, and so we had the first Catholic site in Cuenca!"

You had to crawl to get to the very top of the bell tower., even Terran had to duck The kids had a good laugh watching Wyatt try to fit into these spaces

I'll be honest, our favorite part of this church was not so much it's history, or fancy architecture, although both those aspects were cool ,but rather that it felt like something out of movie. The church has secret doors, where nuns could go in and out without been seen, it had super narrow, and cool stairwells, and more importantly the guide let us ring the church bells! We had such a fun time with this guide, that we asked her for some advise of other neat sites in Cuenca. She said we should visit the New Cathedral, but this time take the tour that lets you go up those towers, she said it was totally worth it, so off we went!

The tour of the new Cathedral of Cuenca did not disappoint, it included what Cuencanos call the Old Cathedral, the New Cathedral, the dome tower (the church has no bell, so not the bell tower), and the crypt. This Cathedral as I have mentioned before is HUGE, and the architecture is apparently very similar to the Vatican. The guide said that when John Paul II visited the Cuenca Cathedral he felt like he was back in the Vatican. I also learned how a church becomes a Basilica....if a Pope has given mass in that church, then it becomes a Basilica, I thought that was interesting. Yes, I am obsessed with Old churches, but that is not new for me.

The New Cathedral

A view from the top of the New Cathedral

After touring a few churches we headed to the Mercado for lunch, but on our way there the kids met this little girl......and yes, they wanted to take her home!....I almost wanted to take her home too.

Terran in love with this little perrita.

Food in the Ecuadorian Markets is yummy, and super cheap, this time Maija had a huge empanada, and tried Ecuadorian Ceviche for the first time....really yummy by the way. We also tried a dish called Guatita. The main ingredient in Guatita is cow tripe, growing up I would not be caught dead trying Guatita, but now that I am a Mom, I have to set a good example, blah, blah, blah, so I tried it...I still don't like it, but I tried it! So there, in your face Motherhood!

An emepanada bigger than Maija's head....they serve them with sugar on top

Shrimp ceviche....Wyatt had some fish ceviche, but by the time we went to try some it was all gone, so next time we hit the market, that will be our lunch!

After our cullinary risks we tried a few other risks....We headed to Turi. Everyone told us, it was the place to get a nice view of the city, I had also heard they had Zip lines, and other fun rides there. I was expecting that we would go up, look, go back to find more museums, but this is what happened....

Ready for the Zip lines

Maija is usually so cautious, but I think today she was feeling adventurous....maybe it was the ceviche, because she tried everything! I am very proud of her.

Crossing the hanging bridge

Terran also joined in the fun, he was too light to go on his own, so here he is with the zip line guide. Very proud of my risk taking kids!

Terran

I went on all three zip lines too

MAIJA!

Here are a few shots of Turi. Cuenca is awesome! Por eso, por eso, por eso te quiero Cuenca *sang to the tune of the gas trucks*!

Cuenca from Turi

This picture perfectly describes Wyatt's biggest problem with Ecuador

Cuenca

La Iglesia de Turi

Next weekend we will hopefully be in Guayaquil, Yay!