Why You May Consider Moving to Cuenca, Ecuador

 Our Adventure to Cuenca, Ecuador

We had the opportunity to visit Ecuador in 2019. I didn't have a blog to tell you all about our amazing trip then, but I do now! I'd like to just let you know the experiences we had while visiting and share some beautiful pictures of the city! 

First off, I highly recommend at least visiting once and even recommend this as a possible place to move if you are looking for a spot to move abroad! In fact, the reason we visited was to see if we would want to move there! I'll let you know why we decided against it at the end of this post.

The airplane ride went pretty smoothly into Guayaquil, spent the night, and the next morning we had to grab a taxi to a van service to take us through the Andes. If I remember correctly, it was about a 5 hour drive. This was fun!(as I chuckle to myself)

 Everything was going great, we were driving through little towns and passing cocoa and banana fields when all of a sudden we are in the mountains. And it's not your typical mountains, these are the Andes! The pictures above were taken on our drive. 

We then realized we couldn't see in front of us. No kidding, we are I don't know how high up, we are on a twisty, bending, loopty-loop, two lane road and all you can see in front is white clouds! The driver was unfazed and was cheerfully tapping his fingers to the music on his steering wheel. It's like he knew the road by heart. Since I did not, I took a deep breath and looked out the side window, hoping we didn't fly off the edge.

We met a wonderful gentleman and his wife who were riding with us and he gladly told us stories as we passed certain areas. They were things such as, "this turn coming up, if you look, you will see tons of cars down there because a lot of cars go off the edge here." and "That place we just passed was a restaurant and a giant boulder came a few years ago and took out half the place!" Quite the stories! We stopped at a little tienda halfway through and it had beautiful, breathtaking views!

We grabbed some snacks, used the bathroom and were back on our way. My son got a bit car sick on the way and the driver was so great. It's like he knew this would happen...driving through windy roads. Mind you, he's still tapping away driving by memory and he smoothly just grabs a bag for my son to upchuck in and hands it to my husband. Thank goodness it all ended up in the bag and W was just fine after that.

Arriving in Cuenca was so exciting! Let me tell you, it's a beautiful city. Cuenca sits at an elevation of about 8,500 ft so the air is thin. It's one of the oldest cities in the Americas and is a UNESCO world heritage site. It has stunning colonial architecture and cobblestone streets. There are 4 rivers that flow through the city, lined with trees, and the mountains surround the entire city. It's amazing! I will post pictures but they don't do it justice.

The weather is so nice here as well. I think average year round temperatures are in the 60's. There is a rainy season and a dry season. Although the temps are pretty perfect, the sun is INTENSE! You don't notice at first and it's not a heat per say. It's hard to explain. You feel those rays though, so be sure and wear a hat or use an umbrella if you are sunburn prone like me. The people are all kind. They were patient with us when we spoke our broken Spanish and most even spoke a little English. Everyone we passed on the sidewalk said good morning or evening and were just so hospitable. The people alone make this city so welcoming.

We ate all kinds of scrumptious foods while there. Empanadas, Locro(a potato soup), and Cuy. We didn't have a chance to eat cuy, which is guinea pig by the way. They eat them over there! Would you try them? I guess I will try anything once. But all of the food we did eat was good!

The wildlife and vegetation abound. Since the weather is so mild it seems as though anything grows here. The hummingbirds are humongous, the alpacas are cute, and there are no mosquitos! The elevation is too high for them so everyone benefits. That's a win win in my book.

The whole city is walkable but there are public buses and taxis which are inexpensive. So if there is a lot of uphill walking and you feel as though you might keel over because of the lack of oxygen, worry not my friend! The museums are all free. We were able to visit Museo Pumapungo and walk through the archeological park in the back with what is thought to be part of the old Incan city Tomebomba and they have a replica of a home that you can walk into as well.

They even have a little area with rescued animals that you can look at. The kids, of course, loved this. 

The scenery and landscape is just so pretty. We couldn't get over it, the entire time we were there, we kept remarking how gorgeous it was.

We were able to visit the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception which you can see pretty much from any point in the city and they are lit up with blue lights at night. There is Turi, which gives you a birds eye view of the whole city. We visited the Toquilla Straw Hat Museum. You know the "Panama" hats? Those originated from here. There are parks and playgrounds every block we felt! There is also a beautiful flower market every week. I love flowers and had to hold myself back from buying the flower arrangements. I had to remind myself I didn't live there! 

There are many day-trips to take to the surrounding area too! You can visit Cajas National Park or visit the waterfall "El Chorro", among other things. 

Our Thoughts:

As I said at the beginning, we originally visited here to check it out and see if we wanted to move here. 

We absolutely loved our time spent here, if you couldn't already tell from this post. The Visa requirements are simple, the weather is perfect, the cost of living is low, and getting around is easy. So why did we decide against it? Well, the main reason is "ease of access" which I discuss in my earlier post here- Tips before moving abroad

We decided against it because it is not as easy of access in and out of the city as we would like our first living abroad adventure to be. In fact we had difficulty getting out as there was a strike going on and all transportation in and out of the city was halted, which resulted in us missing our flight out of Guayaquil. We never felt in danger but it did make things difficult with getting a new flight out, contacting our trip insurance, getting another place to stay overnight, etc. We do hope that once we know Spanish more and are more confident in our ability, that we can give Cuenca another go sometime in the future.

I hope you enjoyed reminiscing with me and enjoyed the pictures and info on Cuenca, Ecuador. Would you move here? Have you been? Have any questions? Let me know in the comments!

~Bee🐝