Cuenca, Ecuador

After Baños I bussed it about 5 hours south to Cuenca. Had to change busses in Riobamba and got to witness a near riot as hundreds of people were literally fighting each other to get on the buses bound for Quito. There was blood, police and arrests. People were knocking old women and children to the ground to cut in front of them. It was a mess. Luckily I wasn´t headed to Quito.

Cuenca is in southern Ecuador and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It´s a pretty city, but I arrived the day after their big Independence Day party so the city was a little dead.

Checked out the Museo del Banco Central, which really has nothing to do with banking. There is an Inca excavation called Tomebamba behind the museum which was interesting, but the best part was the shrunken head exhibit. I always thought that shrunken heads were part of some myth, but evidentally the Shuar people of Ecuador used to make ¨Tsantsas¨or shrunken heads. Basically they did this to people who were killed, either in battle or to avenge a murder. Not sure how exactly they do it, but the purpose of making a shrunken head was to seal the soul of the individual inside so that they could not cause harm to people either in this life or the afterlife. After a battle, the tsantsa was a trophy.

Cuenca was alright and I´m sure it is more lively at other times of the year. I seemed to arrive when the city was recovering from the massive party the weekend before. Off to the Pacific coast soon.