Off with their heads….

I thought we were bad, our country that is. For whoever has done something of any acclaim, like crossing the Mississippi River, gets casts bronze or carved in marble on a mountain top and their heads placed in a town square or a museum.
Why?
So third graders can pass by asking their teacher, “Who is that?” and the teacher has no idea. Our teacher was Carmita a personal guide for a day tour of Cuenca, Ecuador. So come with us for a two paragraph tour of the town.

One of the first places we stoped was a square and it too had a carved head. It' was of some Spainish guy who discovered there was no way out of Eucador other than flying and this was in the late 1500's. There are more lose heads floating around Cuenca that you can count. They even have a main street with a green boulevard. On each block there is someone’s bronze head mounted, very picture'ques. But it kind of reminded me of the French Revolution.

And did you know what fits on top of those heads and most other styish folks? Panama Hats and they are not from Panama? That’s right, they all come from Ecuador! We went to the source, a hat factory and purchased a few… a few to many. Carmita explained that if the hats were actually made in Panama, they wouldn’t be Panama Hats. Only Ecuadorians hats are Panama Hats, got that Ken Smedberg? Plus a $30 hat there, costs $200 here. Hummm. Like our gas is $4.00 and rising and theirs is $1.48

Poor Camita had to put up with some real dumb questions that I kept asking her. Like..."How come so many mounted heads?" Then she told me if I asked one more she’d put me in jail… she did. Their old jail is now being converted into an art gallery/concert hall/meeting place. And the tour continued. “Did you know the town has 52 churches?” One for each day of the week.

Finally, we had a lunch break but didn’t drink the water. It was a grand day. The sun burned away the clouds we really got to see the Andes and the surroundings mountains. We then walked along the Tomebama River Park with it‘s flowering greenery and busy birds… I then thought about our snow covered driveway at home … what a terrible thought... Tour Continues.