How do I even summarize the month we spent in Cuenca Ecuador? It is difficult to explain how quickly the city felt familiar. Our first month in Ecuador was spent figuring out how to live in a new place where we didn’t speak the language. When we got to Cuenca, we hit our stride. We spent our first full day finding the grocery store and markets. We put our few belongings away in preparation for the work week and spent an afternoon taking lazy strolls through the historic city center. Familiarizing ourself with our new temporary home. We filled our heads with lists of places we couldn’t wait to visit and foods we wanted to try. Spoiler alert, we hardly made a dent in these impromptu mental checklists during our one month stay.
Cuenca is a stunning city with many things to see, do, and taste, but for us, Cuenca quickly became about community. After a month of seeing sights and exploring new places, our hearts were needing some more meaningful connections with people. It can be all too easy to keep to yourself in another country because the language barrier is challenging or you are afraid of looking silly. You might even worry that you won’t have anything you can connect on. However, the people we met in Cuenca proved those fears totally wrong.
Life is infinitely more fun when you say yes. The first person we met in Cuenca posted on a Facebook group looking for someone to join her paragliding. As soon as I saw her post, my heart leapt. I would love to go paragliding! However, jumping off a mountain with another person strapped to your back and only 50 pounds of gear to keep you from crashing to the ground is not Jacob’s idea of a good time. So I jumped at the opportunity to go with another person. Yes, even if it was a stranger I met online. That is how I met Kaitlin and got the opportunity to go paragliding in Ecuador. Something I probably would not have coordinated on my own
Kaitlin, Jacob, and I met for lunch a few days before the paragliding excursion to meet in person and get to know each other a bit. Jacob headed back to the apartment to work after lunch. Kaitlin and I spent the afternoon walking the streets of Cuenca popping into little shops, visiting cathedrals, and taking in the views of the city from the rooftop of a café. Later that evening, Jacob and I attended our first language exchange with Kaitlin where we met more amazing people. The language exchanges were held at local businesses in Cuenca. We spent time speaking in English and in Spanish. Those who were native in one language would help the people learning the other language and vice versa. It was a highlight of our weeks in Cuenca and our Spanish improved the more we practiced making everything else we did in Ecuador a little bit easier.
When Friday rolled around we met early in the morning to head to Paute to go paragliding with Parapente Paute www.parapentepaute.com . The guides were knowledgeable and friendly. We had a beautiful, clear morning for our flight. The winds were a bit stronger than usual, but our committed and talented instructors guided us safely. Two of the instructors met us in Cuenca and drove us the hour to Paute. Even the drive out to the paragliding location was beautiful.
We pulled into a large parking lot where we met up with two other instructors and two more passengers. Then we all piled into a pickup truck with the instructors and gear stacked in the back and drove up the mountain to the point of takeoff. The drive up the mountain was an adrenaline rush in and of itself. I was shocked at how little equipment it took to fly off the side of a mountain and how a quick 2 minute explanation of the process was all I needed. Yet before long, my fellow passengers were floating high above me in the air. I was the last to take off and my instructor and I had a stumble on our first attempt at taking off. I am pretty sure I misunderstood the instructions and sat back too quickly causing us to plop down on the ground rather than lifting into the air.
On our second attempt we were flying high above the mountains before I could even process that we had taken off. There is nothing quite like taking in the beauty of the world from the sky. I grew up flying with my dad in his Cessna 150. From an early age I appreciated the peacefulness of the sky. Paragliding gave me very similar feelings. I was simultaneously in awe of the landscape and the talent of my instructor to keep us suspended in the air by a few strings and a piece of fabric. Time seemed to stand still and go by quickly during our flight. I felt like a kid the whole flight.
Within no time, we were preparing to land. Everything went smoothly until we had our feet on the ground. As we ran the last few steps to slow down, I tripped over my pilot’s feet and we took a tumble. Not surprising that I would trip considering my track record of chronic clumsiness.
We were quickly back up on our feet and disconnected from our paraglider. We spent a few minutes chatting with the pilots and hearing about their experiences paragliding. I learned that my pilot was a police officer in Paute and he does paragliding over his breaks and between shifts. He had even driven his squad car to the parking lot where we landed. Soon we were back in the car heading toward Cuenca.
Kaitlin and I decided to head to a nearby town to visit Ingapirca, the largest Incan ruins in Ecuador. Our instructors dropped us off near our bus stop and we jumped on the next bus to Cañar. Once in Cañar we grabbed a quick lunch before taking a taxi to Ingapirca. Once we arrived, we had to purchase tickets to enter the ruins on the guided tour. You are not allowed to walk around inside the ruins unescorted. The tickets are $2 per person and you will be assigned a timed entry at the time of purchase. While waiting for the tour to start, we enjoyed the museum on site, walked around the exterior of the ruins, and shopped for souvenirs from the various vendors on site.
The guided tour lasts around an hour. The guide will share the interesting history of these ruins and discuss the history of both the Incas and the Cañari people. The Cañari resided in this area even before the Incas arrived. Our guide left plenty of time for stops to take it all in and snap some photos. Throughout the whole tour you are walking towards the Sun Temple. The best preserved and most impressive structure on the site. I thought it was interesting that we were able to walk right up to the ruins. The museum has done an excellent job at preserving the integrity of the ruins while allowing visitors a close and educating experience while visiting. Not only are the ruins impressive, but the views from the Sun Temple are also stunning. The Cañar province is stunning, but the altitude and its geographical location makes the weather fickle. Dress in layers and prepare for sudden changes in weather when you visit this area.
In total, we spent two hours at Ingapirca which was plenty of time to visit the entire site without feeling rushed. Then we grabbed a taxi back to the bus station in Cañar where we took the bus back to Cuenca. The scenery made for a stunning bus ride, and a wonderful backdrop as Kaitlin shared about her time spent in the peace corps in Ecuador. As the bus pulled into Terminal Terestre in Cuenca, I was feeling so grateful for the unexpected adventures of our first week in Cuenca.
Through Facebook groups and language exchanges we were able to meet many people that enriched our time in Cuenca. Some were fellow travelers, some were Ecuadorian, and others had moved to this beautiful country and now call it home. All of them shared their stories, culture, or life experiences with us. That is the most beautiful part of traveling. To take yourself out of your sphere of comfort and open your heart to people you would never have met otherwise. No sight, natural beauty, not even the wonders of the world can compare to these exchanges with our fellow humans. To connect on our many similarities, to learn about and respect the things that make us different, this is living. A privilege I hope to never take for granted.
Why, you might be thinking, am I spending so much time talking about people that many of you will never meet? Because, as I am writing this 6 months after we left Cueca, I have to refer back to my photos to remind myself of the things Jacob and I did and places we saw. Yet the people are vibrant and fresh in my memory even though I don’t have a single photo of any of them. The people have left a mark on me. I will remember them and their stories for years to come. I will continue to root for them and wish them well even if our paths never cross again. This, my sweet friends, is what compels me most to see the world. Even though it requires me to step outside of my comfort zone.
To those we met during our time in Ecuador, thank you, a thousand times thank you. To those who took us on adventures, to those that showed us around the city, to those who opened their homes and shared a meal with us, to those who were the first to invite us out, to those that shared their recommendations and stories, we are forever grateful to you. You were an integral part of our three-month trip. Meeting you all was the highlight of our time in Ecuador and your input and ideas shaped the entire last month of our trip. We are forever grateful to have met you and sincerely hope our paths will cross again.