Cuenca Day #1:
We arrived around 5:30 P.M. and were greeted by our hosts Ivan and Enma. We share the home with 6 other people and 3 Yorkies. We
have breakfast and dinner with the family and during those times we discuss in
Spanish what happened during our day as well as share information about our
lives in general.
Immersion experiences are not only an intense way to
learn a language, but also a great lesson in adaptation. You basically move in
with total strangers who don’t speak your language, so you must rely on your
knowledge of their language to communicate all the things you need in your
activities of daily living. If you have already had some classes in Spanish, it
is by far the best way to advance your knowledge and speaking ability.
Shortly after our arrival, Ivan offered to show us how to
navigate our way to class from their house and to take us on a short tour
around the city. The school is about a 20-30 minute walk from the house.
Cuenca has a population of about 510,000, 10,000 of which
are ex-pats. It is a city steeped in antiquity with many old churches, hotels,
government buildings and museums. The streets are impeccably clean. The
pedestrian signals are equipped with 2 different bird sounds that accompany the
change in color. Green makes a Cuckoo sound and red makes a tweeting sound. As
with most Latin American cities, people drive really fast and use their horns a
lot. They pretty much always take the right of way, so this requires extra
mindful walking practice – no spacing out while gawking at city structures.
Cuenca Day #2:
We struck out on our own and successfully located a nearby laundromat ,
where we were amazingly able to communicate our needs. Our sentences sounded
like Caveman Spanish, but the woman seemed to understand, as she smiled and
nodded politely.
Next, we traced our way back along the route that Ivan
had showed us to our school. We met our instructor Maria Elaina, who it turns
out is also a nurse. We spent our first class talking to her about ourselves
and discovered just how much of our previously learned Spanish we had
forgotten.
At the end of our session, before our walk home, she
advised us to be careful, because there were occasionally robbers on the
corners near the school. “Great, we said, undoubtedly scoping out the
tourists!” She said that they frequently use the drug “Scopalamine” in its
natural form. It is a drug that is rapidly absorbed through the skin on contact
and can render the recipient unconscious and sometimes dead. It is apparently placed on a brochure or
other kind of printed papers that people try to hand you, so the rule of thumb
is, don’t accept any form of paper from strangers on the street.” Ok, we say,
we will walk fast and with purpose – like we know what we are doing.” Of course
we don’t stand out at all. No worries, we made it home without incident.
Cuenca Day #3: Our
day started at 9:00A.M. with a city tour. Our first stop was at the cathedral
of San Sebastian built in 1736. Our next stop was at the Museum of Modern Art.
Strangely, the place didn’t seem to have much art. Its history was more
interesting than the art displayed. Prior to becoming a museum, it had been an
orphanage, an alcohol treatment center and a prison.
We visited a tiny shop where an elderly man made a form
of metal art called “Repujado”, and another small shop where they repaired
“Panama Hats”, that apparently originated in Ecuador, not Panama. Our guide
informed us that the process of dying the hats white was extremely toxic and
that many of the workers develop throat cancer as a result of working with
sulfur to dye the hats.
We walked through an indigenous market where they had
many different kinds of fruits, vegetables and herbal products that claimed to
cure everything. We tried several of the fruits and also the “Hornado” (roasted
whole pig) – very tasty.
The shining star of the tour was the new cathedral built in 1885. It is the 2nd largest in S. America. Inside there were huge pillars made of pink marble and an alter that is a perfect replica of St. Peters in the Vatican. Outside of the main cathedral we visited a cloister of the Carmelite nuns, who are not allowed to have direct contact with the outside world. They do make several products that the public can buy for $5.00. The procedure goes something like this: First, you ring the bell and wait for the response –“ Ave Maria Purisma”, to which you reply, “Sin pecado consivida”(without sin conceived). Next you place your $5.00 on a rotating shelf with your request and in turn they place your product on the shelf. Outside of the cloister is an incredible flower market where you can purchase elaborate bouquets for $3.50.
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