Settling into life here in Cuenca. It was nice to have a weekend off from school !

On Saturday we went on a very interesting cultural tour and spent the day with a Quechuan community in Chilcatoras a small village about 20km south of Cuenca. The Quechuans are the indigenous people descended from the Incas. They plied us with their strange alcohol all day long and entertained us with their music. They took us on a long walk explaining about the medicinal use of each and every one of their plants , showed us how to milk a cow & took us to a cheese factory. They threw a traditional pampa mesa ( community feast ) for us & we finally ate ( among other things ) cuy - roast guinea pig. A good day but lack of spanish still a proplem . ( Or was it their lack of english ? )
The trip was organised by a French charity and every penny we paid goes directly to the Quechuan community . At present it is helping to fund a recently - built health centre.

We went to the local multi-cinema on Friday and watched " The Secret Window " based on a Stehen King story starring Jonnie Depp . Most films are American with spanish sub-titles so good for entertainment value & spanish learning! I think we will go there often.

Yesterday we went to a football match in the city in the evening. Yes really ! Cuenca v Quito , score 1-1. Just for the cultural experience you understand ! Equivalent standard to a York - Hull derby but a crowd of approx 20000 people with flares , banners & a firework display. Police out with full riot gear but there was no crowd trouble. Football is very important to South Americans !

There is a lot of student unrest here at the moment. Unfortunately these disturbances take place on the stretch of road between our accomodation & the city centre. Confrontation between stone-throwing students & police in riot gear firing CS gas. Although we obviously try to avoid it we get caught up in it on Thursday. CS gassed for the first time in our lives ! It really hurt eyes nose & throat but no real harm done.