Cuenca and Parque Nacional Cajas

The New Cathedral and Main Square

I arrived in Cuenca from Macas by bus. The distance between towns and passing back over the Andes made continuing this direction by bicycle appear quite difficult.

Cuenca

Once in Cuenca, the first thing I did was jump on a tour bus to get familiar with the city. Cuenca from an infrastructure standpoint seems to be one of the nicer cities in Ecuador. The roads and sidewalks are good. Buildings seemed to be well maintained. The architecture seems to be a mix of colonial along with up-to-date standards based buildings. It seems quite safe (although so does most of Ecuador). There is a nice selection of restaurants. The weather is moderately warm and from what I understand very consistent throughout the year.

If I had one word to describe Cuenca, it would be comfortable. Apparently, a number of ex-pats would agree as Cuenca is a top destination for retirees. I can completely understand this. A retiree with limited language skills could move here and lead a comfortable life while spending quite reasonably. I myself could see spending more time here.

Cuenca Main Square

Overlooking Cuenca

New Cathedral at Night

A Local Government Building

 Parque Nacional Cajas

View from Main Hiking Entrance to Parque Nacional Cajas

Cajas is the number 1 recommendation on trip advisor. Even so, I was not convinced I wanted to visit Cajas as I have been to a number of other paramo locations in the upper Andes already. However, I started talking to a few people where I was staying about options for what to do in Cuenca and pretty soon we had a group going to Cajas.

It was easy to get to Cajas; just grab a bus from the bus terminal to Cajas directly or to Guayaquil and get off at the Cajas stop. It is about 1 hour from Cuenca.

Cajas has a number of hiking options ranging from 2 to 3 hour hikes to multi day hikes. We chose a 4 hour hike that took us about 3 hours. The hiking trails sit at about 4,000 meters or 13,000 feet in altitude, so thin air can be an issue.