Cuenca is a very pretty city in southern Ecuador. Although still a good-sized city, it has a much more relaxed feel than the capital of Quito. The historic center of the city is beautiful, with 16th and 17th century Spanish colonial buildings still lining the streets and with lovely squares filled with trees and fountains for relaxing.
It is a great city to take a walking tour, as the central area is quite compact and the guides are great at explaining all of the main highlights and important cultural areas. The New Cathedral of Cuenca is one of the most recognizable buildings. Impressive already in its grandeur, you may not even notice that the towers are missing. This was due to a mistake on the architect’s part – if the towers he included in the plan were built, the cathedral would not be able to bear the weight, so they had to be left out of the final construction. The interior of the cathedral is enormous and impressive, floored with marble from Cuenca. You can also pay a small fee to climb up to the top of the cathedral for a lovely view of the historic center of the city.
I spent a lot of time just walking around Cuenca and enjoying the different streets, shops, restaurants, and scenery the city has to offer. The area near the river is nice, and if you are up to a good walk, you can cross the river and head through the other side of the city then up the hill to the Mirador de Turi, which offers a gorgeous view of the whole city.
If you’re looking to get out of Cuenca for a day, I’d recommend visiting Cajas National Park. Only a little over an hour by bus from Cuenca, Cajas National Park boasts some of the most unique landsapes I saw in Ecuador. It is at a much higher elevation than Cuenca (around 4,000 meters in most of the park) and has a very different climate. Whereas Cuenca was warm and sunny during the day, Cajas is misty, foggy, and cool. The landscape is dotted with lagunas under mountains and rock outcroppings, with marshes and unique tree forests. There are several trails to choose from in the park, ranging from a few hours to a few days. I chose one of the most popular trails, the red trail, the first day I visited and enjoyed it so much that I returned the next day to try the blue trail, which is quite a bit longer but leads through some amazing scenery. The trails are quite well marked but there are sometimes unmarked trails that branch off, so if you find that you haven’t seen any colored markings for a bit, you may want to backtrack to make sure you’re on the correct trail still (I may have made a wrong turn or two myself but luckily didn’t get too far off track).
Cuenca turned out to be a very relaxing, pretty city to enjoy as my last stop in Ecuador. I was surprised by how much I liked it (I’m usually not much of a city person), but the prettiness of the place combined with the friendly people I met there and the proximity to Cajas made it one of my favorite cities in Ecuador.
Cuenca is easily reached by bus from the surrounding cities. There are direct buses from Quito and from Guayaquil. If you’re coming from one of the smaller towns in Ecuador, there may not be a direct bus, but if you can get dropped at the Pan-American highway, it’s usually possible to flag down a bus headed for Cuenca.
To get to Cajas National Park from Cuenca, just head to the main bus terminal and take any bus headed in the direction of Guayaquil. Be sure to ask the driver to drop you at Cajas (only a little over an hour from Cuenca).
- Take time just to walk around and explore the city. It helps to take a walking tour so you know the history, but even without a tour it is nice just to admire the buildings and squares.
- Cuenca is an international city with a lot of variety of cuisine to offer, so if you’ve been missing certain foods like Indian, Arabic, Italian, Mexican, Cuenca is a good place to splurge a little.
- If you’re headed to Cajas, be sure to bring a jacket and a waterproof layer as well as good boots. It gets very cold/wet/muddy there!
