Living the Slow-Travel Life in Cuenca Ecuador

It’s been a couple of weeks since we made our last boots-on-the-ground post about our current life in Cuenca Ecuador. Sorry about that!

But life has been good.

I think I’ve finally licked the altitude sickness symptoms I’ve been struggling with since our last week in Baños de Agua Santa.

But all of my downtime has definitely taken a hit on my conditioning. It is really easy to get out of fighting shape when you travel if you don’t stay vigilant! So it is time to fix that by hitting my portable gym, focus on training, and getting my strength and endurance back.

And Rhonda wants to get in on the action too!

Developing strength is the best way to maintain your youth as you get older. It is also the best form of health insurance you can give yourself, in addition to avoiding bad consumption-based habits. We want to stay strong, healthy, and active during our early retirement!

So what have we been up to?

We have been enjoying the slow life in Cuenca Ecuador. We’ve been walking all over Cuenca, exploring its lesser-known nooks and crannies, and finding fun (and cheap) new ways to pass the time!

So what does that look like?

Here is a sampling.

Freebies are Fun

It should be no surprise to any of our readers by now that we love finding free fun things to do. And Cuenca has no shortage of freebies!

One of the great things about this city is that many of the public parks and museums are 100% free! So needless to say, we have been checking some of those out.

The first freebie we visited was the Museo y Sitio Arqueológico Pumapungo. This museum and archaeological site, which is technically three museums in one, was fun to visit.

The basement floor houses a museum of numismatics, featuring the history of currencies in Ecuador. The ground floor houses a museum of archaeology that displays many artifacts unearthed during the excavations at this site between 1981 and 1990. The top floor houses a museum of anthropology, which has many exhibits describing the cultural traditions and changes that have occurred in this area over time.

And to top all of this off, the museum is set at the top of a large Incan archaeological site with hiking paths, green spaces, and ruins of cultural significance to visit.

But this all said, our museum experience was a little disappointing.

Sadly, photography in the museum was completely forbidden, so we have little visual evidence of the cool things you can see inside!

But most disappointing, the recent earthquake in Ecuador prompted the museum staff to prohibit public access to the entire Incan archaeological site due to concerns about damage and safety. This even included the green spaces and hiking paths! A real bummer, as most of the site is an open park where you could admire ruins from a distance if safety were a concern.

But at least I was able to get a picture of what we were missing through a gap in the fence that protected the site from unauthorized entry!

Still, we do recommend visiting the Museo y Sitio Arqueológico Pumapungo. It is a good way to kill an hour or two. Even more so when they eventually reopen the Incan archaeological site!

The second freebie we visited was the Jardin Botanico de Cuenca. This is a lovely botanical garden that features walking paths, elevated boardwalks, and botanical installations featuring different ecosystems in this part of the Andean mountain range.

The garden was recently built, so the plantings were only recently installed and were not filled out yet. It will take more time for this garden to reach its fullest potential! But still, the garden was a really nice park for walking in, relaxing, and to enjoying the solitude.

Here are a few pictures from our visit.

Highly recommended for a visit, especially if you like parks and plants!

The third freebie we visited was the Museo Municipal de Arte Moderno, a modern art museum primarily featuring the works of Ecuadorian artists.

The museum was smallish in size (the building was an old primary school), but the exhibits were very well done. And the quirky architectural characteristics of the building enhanced the art on display.

Here are a few of our favorite pieces.

Aimless Wandering

Believe it or not, much of our time has just been getting outside and walking the streets for exercise. And since Cuenca is a city filled with culture, history, and art, just the act of going outside for a walk makes for an interesting few hours.

We always have a good time finding artistic treasures scattered throughout the city!

Here are some of our favorites.

And just before publishing this post, we were able to see some of the festivities in Cuenca centered around the Easter holiday! So many of the public areas had tents with vendors selling their wares.

It is so much fun exploring the city!

And Some Good Food Too

And of course, we’ve been enjoying the local cuisine!

We always mix it up with meals we make ourselves, and those we get for lunch or dinner.

Thoughts On Our Slow-Travel Life in Cuenca Ecuador

So life has been really nice the last couple of weeks! We certainly haven’t been bored.

Granted, I could have done without the temporary health decline and fitness backslide, but I’ll be getting my groove back soon.

And although we have been keeping most of our explorations local, we have a couple of regional day trips planned which we will be writing more about. We’ll add those posts to our guide series soon!

Until next time…

Thanks for reading!

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