Sunday, February 19, 2012

Quaint town of Cuenca

The Larsens who are the directors of this program here discovered that from the money that we all paid to go to this program, we had some extra money leftover. They decided to take us all to a Real Madrid game and also to take us on another day trip yesterday to this small town called Cuenca. It is known for its hanging houses. The houses are literally hanging off of cliffs and its crazy.
I loved this place because the houses were so colorful. The most colorful I have seen so far which probably makes it my favorite city so far because I love colors...but I am done saying things are my favorite. But really, I am obsessed with how colorful this town was so please excuse the plethora of colorful photos I am posting. It was too beautiful.
We didnt exactly have a legit guide for this town which was great. Antonio showed us around a little bit. He is the guy who organized all these city tours but he usually is not our guide. The drive was about 2 1/2 hours which was pretty miserable because Chloe and I were sick. It was a miracle that the entire trip I did not puke. The roads were windy so car sickness added on top of it all. But it was fun of course! I am glad that I went. So we toured around the city and then Chloe and I went off to help Lindsey find a post office so that she could sent her mission documents off. When we finally did find the post office it was shut down and so we had to find another, but in the end she was able to send the papers off which was a relief. The streets in this city were so steep, but not like Toledo. Toledo was up and down crazy. Cuenca basically had just one steep hill. On the way down to the post office was a breeze, but then on the way back up to the Plaza was death. It was fun being able to walk all around this town. This was the Plaza.
Once we got back to the top of the hill where the bus was we had a little time to go on this trail to the edge of a cliff that overlooked the whole city. It was terrifying because we were literally on the edge of a cliff just sitting there. I loved it and it was relaxing.
Hopefully you can see the people on the very edge of that cliff in the center of this picture. That is where we were sitting. It looks more scary from this point of view.

After spending the day in this town we got back on that wonderful bus to go to a hike planned for us. Just a few words about the bus driver... He was the worst driver we have ever had. He would gas it and speed like crazy and then slam on the brakes when it came to a curve. Dont know how he got this job. Ride of a lifetime. He was pretty old too, and I think he almost hit a kid on a bike at one point.
Well we got to this place to go on a hike finally which was really fun. It wasnt too long and it is this trail that goes through a bunch of rock formations. They are really awesome rock formations because they are super tiny at the base and then are huge at the top. This hike actually reminded me a lot of Sunriver in Oregon. It was really sunny and the woods felt the same because they were all pine so the ground was covered in pine needles. It was absolutely refreshing and beautiful. After this park we headed home on the bus. Such a great trip. Now time to get better.






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