Cuenca: Bounty, Beauty, Blood and Bureaucracy - Part I (Let's Start at the very Beginning)

At the end of my previous blog post I promised to share with you my initial impressions of my new city of residence, Cuenca, and over the next four blog entries that is exactly what I intend to do. 

Along the way, we shall encounter a cast of sexy crazy things, toothless Spanish conquistadors, squabbling Inca princelings and pencil-pushing Latin-Ametican bureaucrats.  I shall introduce you to 'The Doctor' and regale you with tales of warfare, incest, lunar astronomy, incipient colonies and quantum anomalies.   You shall witness great cities rise before you and crumble into dust and everything will be signed off in triplicate.

But first, ladies and gentleman, I give you...drum-roll please...

...the typical guidebook intro:

Santa Ana de los Cuatro Ríos de Cuenca (Saint Ann of the Four Rivers of Cuenca) is the third largest city in Ecuador with a current population in its metropolitan area of around 500,000.  Nestled in the Central Andes mountains in a basin (the Spanish word for which is 'Cuenca') formed by the confluence of four rivers (hence the name).  It is sometimes known as the Athens of Ecuador.  The reason for this is that people are incredibly lazy and have a tendency to bang an 'Athens of the x' label on more or less any city which combines beauty, age and culture.

What it actually is, is the Santa Ana de los Cuatro Rios de Cuenca of Ecuador; with its cobbled streets, 16th century cathedral and well-preserved colonial architecture, it was striking enough for UNESCO to get its purple plumed quill pen out and declare Cuenca's historic centre, with its formal orthogonal layout and system of parks, squares, atria, churches and other public spaces, a World Heritage Site in 1999.

The four rivers that have given the city its name are the ríos Tomebamba, Machángara, Yanuncay and Tarqui, which converge together to form the río Cuenca, which joins with the
río Santa Bárbara to become the río Paute. which is a tributary of the río Namangoza, which in its turn is a tributary of the río Santiago, which joins with the río Marañon, which flows into the río Amazonas (that's the River Amazon to me and you) which finally discharges itself into the Atlantic Ocean; which is all very: 'and unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech'.

Located between 2,350 to 2,550 metres above sea level, at this height you receive 75% of the oxygen you would receive at sea level, which can take some adapting to, as your genes are getting round to switching on the 'produce more red blood cells' button; headaches, dizzy-spells and shortness of breath are common complaints to emerge wheezily from the as-yet-unadapted.

The area's stable climate (ranging from you-might-want-to-pop-a-jumper-on average lows of 8-11°C [47-51°F] to rolling-up-the-shirtsleaves-and-having-a-few-minutes-bask-on-a-parkbench-over-lunch average highs of 18-22°C [64-70°F] year round), fertile soil and abundant water have made it an attractive place to live for thousands of years. 

The earliest record of habitation dates back to 8060 b.c.; consisting of pieces of obsidian chisel, scrapers and other tool fragments, along with the bones of porcupines, rabbits, deers, bears, and partridges discovered in the cave of Chopsi not far from the (aforementioned) río Santa Bárbara.  These finds, along with other obsidian tools, spearheads and arrowheads found throughout the area, point to a hunter-gatherer society.

A host of tribes came and went over the millennia until, around about the year 500 b.c. we find a group known as the snake/macaws or Cañari (kan = snake, ara = mackaw) setting up shop.  

This name came from the fact that the primeval Cañari forefathers were hatched from a pair of snake's eggs, got a but uppity with the world they encountered. fought and killed everything, then fought the snake which bore them, who responded by spitthng water at them; giving growth and plenty to the world, after which the two surviving brothers tramped up a mountain where they encountered a sexy pair of lady mackaws.  An energetic burst of mythical, trans-species hanky-panky later and the rest of the Cañari people were born (or perhaps begotten).  Any suggestions of euphemism or phallic imagery in this myth is entirely the result of your own filthy imaginations.  Go wash your smutty minds out with soap and water! 
 
The Cañari were a loose confederation of matriarchal, lunar-calender following tribes whose territory covered much of what is now Southern Ecuador.

They built a city called Guanpondoleg, which means 'land as big as heaven', filling it with many circular and moon-shaped temples and other buildings of great beauty.  The farms of Guanpondoleg spread throughout the valley, there was plenty and prosperity and all was well.

Tupaq Inka Yupanki

All was well, that is, until around the year 1480, when the tenth Sapa Inca, Túpaq Inka Yupanki, found time out of his busy schedule of initiating the first general census of the Inca Empire, having major roads and palaces built, promulgating the cult of the sun and rebuilding the city of Quito to fit his Incaic whim, to give Guanpondoleg a good solid conquering.

He faced fierce resistance however; the Cañari held a great gathering at Guanpondoleg in which they declared Cacique Duma, a chief from the town of Sigisg, as their war-chief.  By all accounts Cacique Duma was an astute fellow and a brave warrior.   He gathered a considerable army together and set them to work guarding the important passes on the approaches into their territory.  

A statue of Cacique Duma in a park
in his hometown of Sigsig.

Now, their creation myth has already given us a good indication that the Cañari weren't shy of a fight.  When Túpaq Inka Yupanki's army arrived, fresh from giving the nearby Paltas a good kicking and subjugating them to his mighty will, they found themselves with a real enemy to contend with and, after a short but intense battle, the Inca army beat a hasty retreat back towards already conquered territory.  For the first time Túpaq Inka Yupanki had tasted the bitterness of defeat.  

He clearly didn't much like the taste, as his response was to send for reinforcements from across the not-inconsiderable  expanses of the Inca empire and, to keep himself occupied while he was waiting for them to arrive, construct a great fortification along the border between the Paltas and the Cañari. 

When Cacique Duma saw the vastness of the assembled Inca army, he clearly decided that discretion was the better part of valour and proceeded to sue for peace.   Túpaq Inka Yupanki didn't buy it and demanded, as proof of their fealty, that the Cañari chiefs send their own children as hostages.  When they did so, he relented and deigned to enter Guanpondoleg, casually renaming it Tumepamba (from whence the río Tomebamba) and allowing the Cañari a certain amount of autonomy as a reward for their fidelity and bravery.

He was impressed with what he saw there though; it was an architectural gem and well located on the way between Quito and Cuzco.  So impressed was he with the architecture that he decided to build some more of his own.   He ordered the construction of a palace complex and administrative centre to be known as Pumapunku or 'the door of the puma'

As the Cañari were a matriarchal culture and the Inca a patriarchal one, the best way to seal the new relationship was with a wedding and so Túpaq Inka Yupanki married with a Cañari queen.

Thus, what was initially intended to be a mere fort to keep the Cañari under control became the secondary capital of the Inca Empire, a spectacular city designed to impress upon his subjects the sheer awe and might of the Inca. 

But by the time the Spanish arrived there, less than a hundred years later, nothing was left of the great city but ruins.  ¿What had happened?

To be continued....

The Beginning - You Are What You Eat

<<¿Would it be possible to use the phone to call the airport

 and check if our baggage has arrived yet?>>

The hostal receptionist looked at me, his eyes earnest and serious.  His look was one of great concern.  Clearly he understood the stress of having to spend days without a change of clothes, the potential costs should the bags not be located, not to mention the emotional trauma of losing so many personal items, each one with its own story to tell.  Yes, I could see he understood my anguish.

And then he knelt down and tied my shoelaces.

<<You must keep these tied sir, or you will fall over.>>

...he said in reproach.  It seems that he was not expressing concern for my predicament, but deploring my lack of basic health and safety.

Perhaps I have got ahead of myself here, leaping bull-in-a-china-shop-esquely into the middle of the story; horns hammering away willy-nilly at the fine porcelain of backstory, until not a shred of context remains.  No doubt you have many questions...¿where am I?...¿who am I?....¿what am I?  The quick witted amongst you will have noted the peculiar upside down question marks that I persist on slotting in front of my questions and will have come to the conclusion that I am ensconced somewhere in the Spanish speaking world.  Those even more quick-witted will have read the title of the blog and concluded that I'm in Ecuador.  Well done to you; you clever, clever things.

But it's possible you don't feel that awareness of this one itsy-bitsy seven letter word leaves you fully briefed on my current situation.  Maybe you, like myself, have at best a patchy understanding of what in the unholy hell an Ecuador is.  If that is so, then come join me in the slow, piecemeal unwrapping of my ignorance.  Let's see if we can't dust the cobwebs off our brains, roll up our sleaves and get knee-deep in a bit of Ecuador.

Ecuador, that tiny South American nation bounded by big bruisers like Peru and Colombia; three strips of land running west to east - Pacific coast, Andean mountains, Amazon jungle - eponymously straddling that imaginary line, equidistant from the North and South poles, that girdles the Earth.   Ecuador, asylum-granter to floppy-haired Aussie gossip spillers.  Ecuador, producer of Pacari chocolate, which put those cuckoo-clock-making, army-knife-wielding types in their place, being crowned the world's best chocolate.  Ecuador, birthplace (somewhat confusingly) of the Panama Hat (of which more in a later blog entry).  Ecuador, my new home.

This video, as it was filmed in Tenerife to accompany a song written by a bunch of Germans, will teach you no useful new information about Ecaudor.

So, what have I learned so far about Ecuador.  It is to foodstuffs and eateries that I turn to illuminate my story.  As far as I'm aware there's no good or logical reason for me to do this, but if anyone can suggest one, I will happily supply them with a bar of gold award winning Pacari 70% Raw - Organic and Biodynamic chocolate.

The first thing I have learned is that Ecuadorians are very proud indeed of being Ecuadorian.  I learned this from the back of a packet of crisps (North Americans and Aussies - n.b. crisps = potato chips). Not any old packet of crisps mind you. These were Lays Artesenas, pride of Ecuador (company originated in USA, product of PepsiCo since 1965).  And how proud they are of being Ecuadorian.  So proud in fact, that they explain, in the following exhaustive detail, the nature of their pride on the back of every single packet.  

¡No hay bien más preciado que la libertad...           There is no good more precious than liberty...
ni orgullo más grande que ser ecuatoriano!             nor pride greater than being Ecuadorian!

Nuestra historia está llena de gestas heroicas        Our history is full of heroic gestures and brave  
y hombres valientes que han defendido el               men who have defended the inalienable right
derecho inalienable de todo hombre y de                of every man and of every people...
todo pueblo... el derecho a ser libres.                    the right to be free.

Nombres como Atahualpa, Rumiñahui,                   Names like Atahualpa, Rumiñahui, 
Espejo, Montúfar, Sáenz, Olmedo, Calderón,         Espejo, Montúfar, Sáenz, Olmedo, Calderón,
Alfaro y otros, engrandecen neustra historia           and Alfaro, amongst others, elevate our history
y sirven de ejemplo a las nuevas generaciones.      and serve as an example to new generations.

Fuimos ejemplo de América, no en vano, un 10      We were an example of America, and not in 
de agosto de 1809 un grupo de idealistas y            vain, one fateful 10th of August, 1809, when  
patriotas se renuió para rebelarse contra las          a group of patriots and idealists gathered 
injusticias de su tiempo, guiando por los caminos    together to rebel against the injustices of their  
de la libertad a los pueblos de América.                 time, guiding the peoples of America along                                                                                the road to liberty.

Hoy, al recordar un nuevo aniversario de aquella    Today, in remembrance of a new anniversary 
gesta, debemos sentirnos más orgullosos de ser    of that gesture, we ought to feel more proud 
ecuatorianos y saber que las cosas que hacemos,  than ever to be Ecuadorian and know that 
las hacemos bien.                                                 the things we do, we do well.

And, having fought their way to the end of the long hard road to liberty, the people are now free to get down to their god-given task of baking the finest of salted potato snacks.  Free at last of the scourge of potato-hoarding, imperialist oppressors.

The second thing that I have learned about Ecuador is that it is a nation attempting to embrace a new kind of socialism.

The powerhouse pushing this change forward is a US and Belgium-educated economist by the name of Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado.  Since 2007, Señor Correa has been performing the singularly impressive trick of staying President of Ecuador.  Now, any old fool can be President of Ecuador (and it seems that several of them have), but staying President of Ecuador appears to be a far more daunting prospect. 

In the ten years prior to Correa's election in 2006, Ecuador had a blink-and-you'll-miss-'em of Presidents, none of whom managed to complete a term.  One of them, Lucio Gutiérrez, was so unpopular that he had to flee the Presidential Palace by helicopter to seek asylum with the Brazilian ambassador after his attempt to flee the country by plane from Quito airport was cut short by hundreds of angry protestors smashing through airport security and blocking the airstrip. Another,
Abdalá Bucaram was nicknamed 'el loco' and removed from office when he was declared mentally unfit to rule.  His successor, Rosalía Arteaga, lasted a grand total of two days as Ecuador's first female president before being ousted, with the army's support, by her political rival Fabián Alarcón who in turn lasted a mere 6 months in office.

Common themes which have run through all of these short-lived and wildly unpopular presidencies are a strict adherence to neoliberal economic policies, a reliance on international institutions such as the IMF and WTO and attempts to maintain a close relationship with the USA   Correa's approach has been somewhat different.

He has stated that one of the formative influences which shaped his political approach was the post-graduation year he spent volunteering in a kindergarten in a small town in the Cotopaxi province of Ecuador called Zumbahua.  At this kindergarten, run by Salesian monks, he met a Veronese monk called Padre Pio Baschirotto with whom he struck up a friendship.  As a result of his conversations with the padre and  his experiences of the crippling poverty suffered by the local people, he developed a feeling of the importance of helping the poorest in the country, learned to speak the indigenous language Quichua, worked to increase the literacy of the indigenous population, as well as providing support for micro-enterprise development  and developed a wish to create a new form of socialism for the 21st century.

Once he got into power, he wasted no time putting this wish into action.  In his time in office he has defaulted on Ecuador's national debt, declaring it odious debt contracted by previous corrupt regimes, declared he would fight Ecuador's creditors in the international courts and succeeded in  reducing the price of outstanding bonds by more than 60%; challenged foreign investors to provide US$3.6bn in contributions to maintain a moratorium on drilling in the remote Yasuni national park (to a deafening silence which has resulted in the moratorium being dropped); used high oil revenues as a result of soaring oil prices to pay for the building of roads, schools and hospitals and to invest heavily in social programmes, including providing free education and healthcare; slashed poverty rates from 37% in 2007 to 27% in 2012; brought Ecuador into the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, joining forces with like-minded regional leaders such as the late Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia; reformed the constitution to recognise the rights of nature and the indigenous concept of Pachamama; had Quichua and Shuar declared national languages; refused to allow the IMF to monitor Ecuador's economic plans and trodden on a hell of a lot of toes. 

He has been accused of stifling the free press, has distanced Ecuador considerably from the USA (when Hugo Chavez likened former US President George W. Bush to Satan, Correa commented that this was somewhat unfair on the devil) and built up over $4 billion of debt to China.

Although he has annoyed a number of multinational companies, particularly oil giants such as Chevron, Correa's socialism of the 21st Century is not directly opposed to commerce and rejects traditional socialist concepts such as centralized planning.

To illustrate this, I would like to draw your attention to the following complimentary packet of Ecuadorian sugar.

I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have seen that in the old USS of R.

The third thing I have learned about Ecuador is that it is a nation which has grown out of ethnic diversity.

When the Spanish Conquistadores arrived in Ecuador in the 16th Century ready to civilize and Christianize with the help of a goodly dose of guns, germs and steel, they found a patchwork of languages and ethnicities which had only partly been absorbed into the great Inca Empire.  

In the 17th Century, a slave-trading galleon was shipwrecked off the coast of the northern province of Esmereldas, and the few black African survivors swam ashore and set up home there, soon to be joined by more cimarrones, escaped slaves from the north. 

Many hundreds of years of inter-marriage and plain old rape resulted in the highly complex casta system of ethnic classification, with its cast of blancos (whites both 'peninsulares' born in Europe and 'criollos' born in the Americas), negros (black Africans), indios (non-differentiated indigenous peoples), mestizos (mixed white and indigenous), mulattos (mixed white and black). zambos (mixed indigenous and black), pardos (mixed white, black and indigenous), cholos (mostly indigenous with a little white mixed in there for good measure) and so on ad infinitum e nauseam.

If you'd like further clarification of this ethnological hairsplitting, you can consult this highly illuminating 18th century 'pintura de castas':

A fairly small amount of immigration in the 20th and 21st centuries has added only a little to the mix, with a tiny Jewish, Lebanese and Palestinian presence (approximately 0.4% of the population) and an even smaller influx of Asians (small enough I think to be classified as a trace element). 

This limited addition of new blood has resulted in a rather hazy understanding of foreign cultures, which I think is ably demonstrated by the Taj Mahal restaurant in Cuenca, which serves such traditional Indian fayre as kebabs and pita bread.

This occasional tendency to view foreigners as a hodgepodge of other is tempered by the extraordinary kindness, politeness and generosity of the Ecuadorian people.

Which brings us back to our friend the hostal receptionist.  Having given me the important footwear health and safety announcement, he was more than happy to let me use the phone to contact the airline about our missing luggage.  Not that this helped me in the slightest with the retrieval of the aforementioned wayward luggage items. 

You see, as I was to discover later when a veritable sea of blue, yellow and red-clad bodies could no longer be ignored, Ecuador were playing an important world cup qualifying match against Bolivia that afternoon and, entirely coincidentally, Quito's American Airlines team happened to be not answering their phone number throughout the same afternoon.  It seems the crisp packet was right, Ecuadorian pride does indeed trump all, office hours included.

The luggage eventually had to be flown across to Cuenca from Quito some fourteen days after our arrival in Ecuador. 

My final victual-based discovery about Ecuador is an assertion about the males of Ecuador which I have as yet been unable to verify.

And so we come rambling on to the end of my first set of musings.  In the next entry, I shall share with you my initial impressions of my new town of residence, Cuenca.