Of Rats, Laryngitis, and Rivers - Cuenca, Ecuador
Cuenca, Ecuador
“One thing you might like to know" says our landlady in English, as she shows us into our apartment in Cuenca, "the rats like to play in the gardens.”
“Really?!” I say, in my best non-hysterical voice.
“Yep,” she says, “but what are you going to do? It’s a city of rivers, there’s bound to be rats.”
“Right.” I say, noticing that “the gardens” are exactly ten feet from the front door of the apartment in which I am meant to live for two months.
———
The city of Cuenca‘s full name is Santa Ana de los Cuatro Ríos de Cuenca. It is about 7,500 feet high located in the southern highlands of Ecuador. The center of the city is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Trust site because of its many historical buildings.
The word “cuenca” means a basin made by a confluence of rivers. These rivers, tumbling through the city, are the Tomebamba, Yanuncay, Tarqui and Machangara.
For the two months we are in Cuenca the rivers run low; in fact it is considered a very dry time. (A year from now (April 2016), as I re-write this blog, the news tells me that this winter in Ecuador 25 people have died from intense rains, landslides and high waters -mostly on the northern coast, Latin America Current Events & News, at the same time, points out that Cuenca is very dry this year).
------
We easily get situated into a new spanish school. It's about ten blocks from our apartment in Centro Historico.
For the first time ever in my life,I have laryngitis and can’t talk at all.
Rats, laryngitis. . .
Kerry is ill, too….traveler’s blues.
Hope we perk up soon.