Touring Loja, Ecuador in No Time Flat

Apparently, Loja has not compelled me to sit at the computer, to write about our experiences. Quite honestly, I am slightly underwhelmed, but this could be a déjà vu experience of what happened in Cuenca in 2013. Our choice of accommodations may have left me cold for all other experiences. It was not until 2015 that I really appreciated, in fact, loved Cuenca. No number of years will raise the scale to loving Loja, but it is enjoyable for what it is.

Tuesday, we took the tour bus. At the tourism office, they claimed it would cost $5 per person, the same as in Cuenca. The first departure of the bus is 11am. Ready and eager, we asked the ‘guide’ if we could get off at one spot and catch the

next bus a few hours later. No, sorry! You get on the bus, go the entire route, you get off the bus. End of story. Then it turned out to be $6, not five. How can it be more expensive than Cuenca? Are you kidding me? This is a smaller city. Fine, we paid it.

As it turned out, Ron and I were the only two people on the entire bus. Due to the bus not stopping at other points in the city, there was no chance for anyone to join the tour. The likely reason is that you only get one go around; it is not an all-day ticket. It would be impossible to track people coming and going.

The guide spoke negligible English and stood directly in front of the two of us with a microphone. He could have spoken to us without props, but he must have been following company rules that required the use of the mic. Feeling ridiculous, I occasionally turned to verify no one was secretly occupying other seats. Rather than the microphone aiding in enunciating his speech, it just made it worse. On top on this, he had a habit on recreated verb tenses. Instead of made, he said made-ed and builted. Strangely, he did the same thing with regular and irregular verbs. With each new kink in his speech, it made-ed my mind wander and wonder how he learned English.

After an hour and a half, we were departing ways from our

guide. I with a sense of being distracted more than educated, there was no opportunity to retrace our route with a different guide. That said there were some highlights that were comprehensible. On one corner of the city, they built a castle like structure to pinpoint one of the old cornerstones of a city wall. Across the street is a wonderful mural, but one will observe that none of the people have eyes. As a tribute to his blind father, the artist purposefully composed this art piece this way.

In another area, where the treat was to view one of the best

panoramas of the city, we were also privy to one of the strangest private homes we have seen. It resembles a castle. Thinking it had to be an ex-pat gone wild, like the Dutch couple in Boquete, Panama, I was wrong. This is Ecuadorian built and owned.

Espresso coffee cafés are as rare as hen’s teeth, but from the bus, I spotted what looked like a significant find. We headed

back there once off the bus. It was an excellent find with a proud owner who displays the entire process on one wall. After enjoying an excellent cappuccino, we could continue our exploration.

Discovering the Museo de la Musica, with free admission, why not explore it. Most rooms had multiple photos and displays of various famous Ecuadorian musicians. Quizzically, there were few instruments on display. Not one musician was recognizable by our US education, but there were DVDs available of all of their recordings. Interestingly, there was only one woman in the main display rooms. There was nothing in English.

However, one large room had a wall filled with female musicians of all genres. However, it is telling that this room also happened to be the dining room for the cafeteria. The kitchen adjoins it.

Calle Lourdes is the street famous for stores and doors that are brightly painted. If you have ever seen the Painted Ladies of San Francisco, this is a similar concept.  They are lovely to view from the distance as well as walking down the street. However, the shops themselves have similar trinkets, jewelry, and other money wasting souvenirs that are available just about everywhere else in the city of Loja or anywhere else in Ecuador. As much as I love shopping, by the second store I was bored.

No day in Ecuador would be complete without visiting churches. Of course, this means Catholic churches, but I

honestly do not mind. I find the décor in each highly individualistic and often times creative. There is a repetitive theme here, the Virgin of El Cisne or Virgin of the Swan. This has almost become mythic in proportions.

The town of El Cisne is in the mountains, 70 kilometers from Loja. Apparently, there is a Marian shrine there. Envious of the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City, the people of El Cisne wanted their own shrine. The locals commissioned sculptor Don Diego de Robles to create the Virgin de El Cisne statue, which he did using a cedar tree. The story goes that once delivered to El Cisne, there was rain, after a long drought. This was considered a miracle.

Droves of people, by the thousands, begin a three-day pilgrimage ever year on August 17th. They start in El Cisne leading a religious procession to Loja. The six-foot tall cedar statue of the virgin is transported to the Loja cathedral. A major festival begins on September 8. The statue lives in the Loja cathedral November 3 when it is returned to El Cisne.

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A Tour With Ups and Downs

Our social life continues to flourish. Yesterday, Howard and Mike came up to get us after offering to join us on the Cuenca tour bus. The bus leaves from the main park by the basilica. While we were waiting for the bus to leave, we noticed there were people filming in the park. We never did find out exactly what it was they were doing, but they were speaking English. We heard directions given to a couple to walk and talk as they were heading toward the camera. In the short time we were there, they had three retakes.

Five dollars a person covers the cost for a 24-hour ticket on the tour bus. Initially, I had thought it was a hop-on hop-off bus, but once we were on it it only made one stop. On the top of the steepest hill in the city, we stopped to taste an Ecuadorian drink. Of course, the tasting place was located inside a souvenir store. Regardless, the view from here was fantastic; you look at the entire city in one panoramic view.

This bus ride has caused me to rethink that the city is basically flat. There are more hills than what one realizes when just walking around the city. It is when you are on a tour like this bus that you realize how hilly it really is. Viewing the building and other markers from a different vantage point up on the bus’s upper deck, things look intensely different. This is neither better nor worse, but it gives one a diverse scope of the area. What was unfortunate was the bus never stopped or paused when we were near something I really wanted to photograph from up high. When it did stop, it was mostly in mundane areas that were not particularly photogenic. Lasting close to two hours, it was really well worth the cost. We did learn that Cuenca has 52 Catholic Churches, one for every week of the year. Whoopee!

Finishing up at the park once again, Howard and Mike suggested lunch. Across the park is Raymipampa, a restaurant we pass by often. I love the fact that they have used all sorts of kitchen utensils to create lighting fixtures. Clumps of spoons, forks, and knives painted in a deep sky blue and given a rustic weathered appearance hang from the ceiling with lights inside. Some other fixtures are colanders, spatulas, and so on creating shades for the lights.

Howard and Mike were gracious enough to escort us to the famous Maria’s German Bakery. Having been given directions multiple times, we still had not discovered it, but we were reconciled that the day we really made an effort to look, it was indeed closed. Ron bought a loaf of fitness bread; he has wanted a hearty dark bread. Since I gave up flour, he is on his own to eat it.

Shortly after returning home, we said a long good-bye to Mike and Howard just so we could linger on their landing for a few extra minutes. They live one floor up from the ground level, but we have two more flights to climb beyond them.

The guys had invited us to a gay mixer at a friend’s home this Saturday, followed by a dinner in town. Later last evening, we received two invitations. Howard and Mike invited us to dinner and Pattie invited us to a Valentine’s Party as well.

From: Howard
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2015 2:54 AM
 To: Ryan
 Cc: Mike
 Subject: Thursday night

We would like to invite you and Ron to our weekly cocktail night, this Thursday at 5:30, with our friends Curt and Scott. We are hosting this week.  We've proposed grilling chicken on the roof. Are you guys available?

 Howard

And
From: Pattie
To: Ryan and Ron
Re: Party
Hey, Ryan and Ron,
A friend is having a Valentine's Day Party and asked me to send her invitation (attached) to you as well.
She is an American, who lived in Lake Chapala for 25 years (largest expat community in the world, we think) Robert and I also lived there for a couple of years. 

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