| Nov 2, 2005 - Turi
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 | Turi from the street
| | 1st view of Cuenca, still low down
| | Another view, same low lookout
| | The stairs at the end
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 | Bunny-looking garbage can
| | Cuenca from 1st overlook, Cathedral in center
| | Cuenca from 1st overlook, wide shot
| | Cuenca from 1st overlook, w/ stadium & cathedral
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 | Cuenca from top overlook, w/ cool cloudy mountains
| | Me on top overlook
| | Turi Church
| | Turi Church from side
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 | Cool street on my walk back
| | Panorama 1, first lookout
| | Panorama 2, first lookout
| | Full panorama, 1st lookout (thanks dad)
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 | | | | 2nd Panorama, top overlook
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| On Wednesday I finally did one of my half-day plans that I have had for a while. Just south of the center of Cuenca is Turi Hill, a small mound affording great views of the city, with a church sitting at the top.
I wanted to walk up to the top before I left, but my entire last week has been rainy and bad weather. Wednesday morning looked no different, but I decided I would just go anyway. With my rain jacket, my camera in a ziplock bag, and a pack cover on my backpack, I set out from my hosue for the short 45 minute walk. There was some drizzling for an instant on the way, but I was pretty lucky over all. The path took me down some main streets, then up a hilly dirt road with only houses on it, then across the major pan-american highway, to the paved entrance road leading up Turi hill to the church. A bit further up this road I turn off to the right and take a giant stone staircase up the final part of the hill to the overlook. I stopped about 3/4 of the way up these stairs, at a garbage can that resembled a rabbit, for my first lookout on the city of Cuenca. Despite the clouds, it looked amazing. From that vantage point you could see just about every major landmark it the city: the main cathedral in the city center, the soccer stadium, the sports coliseum complex, the indoor olympic pool, and all the major roads. I snapped some pictures and continued on to the top. Of course, this view was slightly different, and potentially a bit more interesting, so I snapped all the same photos over again. Yes, I'm really liking this digital film thing.
So I stayed at the top for a bit, and talked with some people. Coincidentally, I ran into Javier, my guide from my other two trips, who was leading a personal tour of the city. It then started to rain hard, so I went into the little gift shop and hung around for a while. Luckily the rain stopped soon after, I geared back up with all my rain protection, and headed back down the hill, and did the same walk in reverse. On the way home I passed a gorgeous street lined with these purple-leafed trees. In these trees were whole families of humming birds fluttering around, but i wasn't quick enough to catch any with the camera.
A nicer day or better weather may have made the view a bit better, but it also could have made the hike up the hill a lot more uncomfortable. I'm glad I went thorugh with the plan anyway, got pretty lucky overall with the rain, and passed out for about 2 hours after eating lunch back at home. |
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