Onto Cuenca
I’m starting to catch up a bit!!!
Thursday we had to leave the hotel by 6am to head to Cuenca. It is only 260km, but its all uphill on roads with very sharp corners. We were told it would take about 6 hours, and with a couple stops, it did.
The view was so beautiful. I took 500 pics on the bus ride alone, so it will take some time before I sort through them and post them.
We arrived and had a wonderful lunch of all typical Cuencan food. We then visited the Rotary clubs building where other team members were just about done the day’s wheelchair distribution.
We all loaded up on a bus and found out that the President of one of the local Rotary clubs had arranged to give us a tour of his business. It turns out, the business is the San Miguel Rum factory. We walked in and he started to give us a brief history of the company. When I saw the view below, I could swear I heard Angels singing.
Have you ever wondered what a 5000L keg of rum looks like?
Now you will never have to ask yourself that question again!
At the end of the tour, our host presented us each with a bottle of rum. Pre-mised Mohitos for the ladies and San Miguel 5 year old rum for the men. He also gave the group one bottle of San Miguel “Black that he asked us to share at the hotel that night.
After the rum factory, it was back to the hotel for some R&R before we went out for supper. One of the local Rotarian’s wives had arranged for us to go to a restaurant that served typical Cuenca food. It turns out it was almost exactly the same as what we had for lunch, but it so good we did not mind at all!
We were introduced to a warm drink called Canelazo. It is a mix of hot water, a local sugar cane distilled alcohol, lemon and sugar. They serve it from a huge tea pot, and they told us that it is bad luck to leave the restaurant unless the pot is empty. The waiter just kept going around all meal refilling everyone’s glasses. I don’t have an exact count, but I know I had about a dozen of these little 2 oz pours.
We will definetly try to make these when we get home!
So it was a bit of a long day, but a great day!
