Google map: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=pt-PT&geocode=&q=cuenca+ecuador&sll=-2.918868,-79.098644&sspn=0.16801,0.350189&ie=UTF8&ll=-2.893667,-79.021397&spn=2.687972,5.603027&z=8
There are strange “urban myths” that become associated with countries, places. Take “chili con carne”, for instance. Typical Mexican food, right? Well, did you know it’s virtually impossible to find it in Mexico (so have fellow travellers told me!) because… Mexicans don’t actually eat it, traditionally?!
I guess it’s a bit like the association of barbequed chicken with Portugal… How often have I heard something along the lines of “Oh, you’re from Portugal? I’m so into your traditional food – I just love your BBQ chicken!”. Since when did BBQ chicken become a traditional Portuguese dish?! OK, we may order it on Sundays when no-one in the house has patience to cook… But, that’s it!
Thanks to fast-food like Nando’s – a very popular BBQ restaurant chain in the UK, owned by a Portuguese emigrant in South Africa, that advertises it as “traditional Portuguese food” side-by-side with a “galo de Barcelos” – our country has been associated in the British mind with the damn food. Apparently there is another so-called traditional Portuguese BBQ restaurant chain in Australia. Now, who will convince the British and the Australians otherwise?
I think a similar myth has been created around Cuenca, a “magical city rich in colonial architectural heritage”. One that rivals the beauty of Quito’s old quarter, they say.
Bollocks! Quito's old quarter is magical; Cuenca is... just not special! Just a few churches and less than a hand-full of genuinely interesting villas, surrounded by the normally dull and uncharacteristic constructions of the 20th century. The colonial-to-modern buildings ratio in the “historical centre” so low that I had to check several times in the map (and ask around) if I was actually visiting the right areas of Cuenca.
But now go convince people about it... I think it’d be easier to tell them BBQ chicken is not so Portuguese after all!
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Cuenca's main plaza
Some of Cuenca's most interesting buildings. I looked around for them and tried hard, OK?
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