#3167: Tuesday, February 27, 2024: Eating Oaxaca

Post 3167

- 13 years and 58 days since I started this blog -

February 21, 2024. Bistro Yaku, Cuenca, Ecuador.

Journal

(written February 27, 2024)

Read this once (it won't change for the rest of the trip(s): I'll be linking this post to Facebook. If that's how you got here, here's some background: About 13 years ago I started this blog as a food journal. I had a medical situation and needed to lose weight. Initially, that's all I did here: Journal my food intake and my weight. It contributed to helping me lose 20+% of my body weight in 6 months, and continuing has kept me on track since then. I started adding commentary after a while, but lately it has become infrequent. 

While I'm traveling, I let go of the weight-tracking and food journaling (except for food shots when I've eaten something interesting or pretty. And that's where we find ourselves now.

My last night in Cuenca, I had a nice hang with a lot of my Cuenca friends mostly - but not entirely - expats. The majority of Cuencano friends sent apologies the next day.

Up top, here I am, having dinner in Bistro Yaku's courtyard smoking section, and trying to look inviting. Below, Anthony and me - Anthony had to be a Big Man. LOL. At bottom, Anthony, BFF Felipe, me and Claudia.

The next morning, Joel the taxista picked me up at 6am and brought me to the airport. Thanks to the previous Sunday's mountain-climbing adventure, I have been in increasing pain (right knee) for the last couple of days. No, it didn't start to bother me until the next day, and the pain was mild. It was worse, and very painful, the next day, and it was at its worst (to that point) when I got out of the cab to the airport.

I limped to the Avianca check-in counter, and got boarding passes for my flight to Quito, to Bógota, Colombia, and to Mexico City. I'm changing airlines for the Mexico City-to-Oaxaca flight, so I'll have to get that ticket there. 

I limped to the departure gate. I've been limping every since. 

The flight from Cuenca to Quito was easy. I met a Canadian dude, Steve, who had seen me play a few times at Bistro Yaku, and was also on the same flight to Bógota. I had a little breakfast at the Quito airport during the layover, and the Bógota was easy, too.

We got to Bógota at 11:30am. My Mexico City flight took off at 4:25pm. Steve patiently walked with me about a mile to my gate, although the gate for his 2:30pm flight to Toronto was much closer. The next day, he messaged me that he had underestimated the distance we'd come, and got to his flight in the nick of time.

I hung out a bit after lunch and at around 3pm, I ambled over to my gate. By then, my flight had taken off an hour ago.

Turns out, I had misread my ticket. My flight departed at 14:25, not 4:25. I had misread it no fewer than three times.

With no flights to Mexico City before 11pm, I had to completely re-ticket from Bógota to Oaxaca. No discounts for last-minute buyers, either.

And, of course, the new departure gate is all the way on the other side of the airport. Moving slow, limping and in pain all the way, it took almost a half-hour to make that trip. 

I got to Oaxaca almost eighteen hours later than I'd originally expected, sleepless for over two days, and checked into my AirBnB. I slept twenty-two of my first forty-eight hours here.

When you walk through the door of my AirBnB, you walk past a carport, down an open alley, past the main residence, and find yourself at the threshold of a beautiful courtyard (top photo). My apartment is on the 2nd floor at the back of the courtyard, 3rd apartment from the left/stairs. The bottom photo is of the way I walked in - I just turned around 180º and snapped it. The main residence is on the left, the carport is under the yellow apartment, the entrance door is behind the car.

I love this peculiar, 12-foot-tall cactus. It sits near my favorite seat on my balcony patio, where we enjoy each other's company while I smoke my weed. 

Last year, I walked a lot, every day. I am close, about three blocks away, from where I stayed last year, although I like this place better in every way, including its location.

This year, so far, I cannot walk so much due to the pain in my knee, an obstacle to the kind of walks and exploration that was my principal entertainment on my previous (and first) visit here thirteen months ago. Also, it is 15-20º hotter, in the 90s from around Noon to 5pm. 

So, bear with me, not as many wandering photos this year.

Luckily, there is a restaurant next door to my AirBnB. Even luckier, Restauránte Taniperla is top-rated on Google, and rated the #1 restaurant in Oaxaca by TripAdvisor! (So far, I rate it highly, but far from #1, based on last year). But the food is definitely very good, and the service and ambiance is excellent. I will be trying more of their food (the menu is not extensive, or, seemingly adventurous, but the quality has certainly been there so far). As long as walking hurts, I am going to take advantage of this stroke of luck, a great restaurant next to my front door.

Although not much, I haven't done no walking around. Above, random shots while I walked. Oaxaca is gorgeous, maybe the most visually attractive and provocative place in all my travels. Around every corner is something that knocks your eyes out.

Speaking of a new visually arresting scene around every corner, I turned a corner and encountered this neon signage. If you've ever had a conversation with me, about me, you know why seeing this stopped me in my tracks. To say it resonated with me is as understated as I will ever be.

My first - and second - stop after arrival (and a little sleep) was to Pig&Fish Food Truck, a restaurant I went to a lot last visit. Tavo, the owner, was the first Oaxacan friend I made last year. We keep up with each other via FaceBook when I'm home. Oh, and the food still blows my mind. I got to have a little lunch with him on the second day, when, in addition to a flight of tacos and a couple of Coronas, he provided a generous number of shots of his house mezcal. I hadn't gotten drunk so far this trip - not my drug of choice - but I will admit it was a pleasant changeup.

I got to visit with Melissa and Roger in their amazing new home a short taxi ride North of Centro. It was a real treat for me to have a fully 'normal' day, by which I mean a day of smoking weed, playing bass, eating, and avoiding unnecessary drama. This is what happened. There was music, it was all quite fun, and I'm going to leave it at that.

Food Comment

From the Del Jardin Café a fruit plate with yogurt and granola (watermelon, mango, papaya and pineapple) and a vegetable juice.

Chepiche Café's huevos divorciados (half red/half green molés) was as good as I remembered. I remembered it as one of my favorite breakfasts, and so it remains. The fruit bowl with yogurt and granola was almost too much, but I managed.

It's not just the photo. The molé Oaxacana was so rich and dark, it was hard to see the enchiladas it covered. Restauránte Taniperla, the restaurant next door, served this dish, enchiladas with molé Oaxacana, and it was pretty amazing. Oaxacana seems to be the derivation of molé Poblano, the first molé I ever tried, some fifty years ago. It's a sauce whose primary taste points are the chilis and cacao. It was the first savory, not sweet, chocolate-flavored food I ever ate, and I liked it a lot. This was a pretty spectacular molé, that totally stole the show from the mix of fresh cheese and chicken enchiladas. 

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#3166: Tuesday, February 20, 2024: Cuenca Toodle-Oo

Post 3166

- 13 years and 51 days since I started this blog -

February 19, 2024, at San Sebas Café.

Journal

(written February 20, 2024)

Read this once (it won't change for the rest of the trip(s): I'll be linking this post to Facebook. If that's how you got here, here's some background: About 13 years ago I started this blog as a food journal. I had a medical situation and needed to lose weight. Initially, that's all I did here: Journal my food intake and my weight. It contributed to helping me lose 20+% of my body weight in 6 months, and continuing has kept me on track since then. I started adding commentary after a while, but lately it has become infrequent. 

While I'm traveling, I let go of the weight-tracking and food journaling (except for food shots when I've eaten something interesting or pretty. And that's where we find ourselves now.

Today is my last day in Cuenca.

It's been an excellent visit.

This last week has been the most action-packed of any I've ever spent here, which, according to my calculations, makes it the best of the previous seventeen weeks I've spent in this city over the last five years. 

Thursday, favorite taxista and all around great guy Diego drove Anthony, his friend Maria, Claudia and . back to Ingipurca.

This time, it was open (last time we could only walk around outside, which was good, but we wanted in. At the beginning of the tour, it looked like the weather, which had been rather threatening, was clearing up. This picture shows the tour guide, Anthony, Diego and Maria out front. Spoiler alert: The weather didn't clear up, and we had rain before we left.

The ruins of Ingapirca are between five and six centuries old - at least, the Incan ruins are, but the Incas built on top of a more ancient Cañari construction, that may be centuries or millenia older. The most interesting, and most obvious structure is the Temple of the Sun, which is another astronomical observer and celestial calendar that, like Stonehenge, accurately lines up stones to be illuminated during solstice events.

The large marking stone is lit up by the rising sun shining through the Temple of the Sun's channel, as seen in the bottom picture. the stones next to the larger stone are thought to have been used to mark the planting calendar.

This is the last photo I took this day. After having some coca tea at the souvenir stand, the rest of the group went on a walk to see a mountainside geological formation that looks like a big face. I have a special connection to big faces - an irrelevant story for another time - but I was feeling cold and a little chilled, and felt sure that it would rain before we could get back, and just hung out at the souvenir stand while they went. It did start raining after about ten minutes, and I went inside. In about two minutes, I struck up a conversation with an Ecuadorian woman, and after a minute, she asked (signed and spoke slow Spanish, my comprehension is, let's say, limited, if I would mind if she took a selfie with me. Not at all, said I. The husband took the phone from her and took the photo, then another woman that was with them approached, and asked for a photo with me. Then with the husband, who was the tallest, standing about four-and-a-half feet tall. And then, I looked, and there was a line of tiny Ecuadorians wanting to get a picture with the giant gringo. So it goes.

I've been spending a lot of time with my friend Claudia, who leads, sings, and plays blues harp in the Blues Enigma Band, which also has sax and flute, guitar, keyboards, drums and bass. Daniel the bass player has moved over to classical guitar while I've taken on bass duties during my stay.

The playing part of the week began with the open mic at Bistro Yaku, where I got to play a set on guitar, then sit in on bass on a couple of sets. Very, very fun jamming.

Then on Thursday, a night with Blues Enigma Band at WunderBar, which was just stellar. I really felt connected with Roberto, BEB's drummer, and the audience was very, very happy.

Friday, I went to Nomadas Bistro to see one of the first musicians I met in Cuenca. I met Marty on my second day in Cuenca, back in 2019, and I've seen him a few times over the years, and even jammed with him a little, but never heard him perform, which, now that I have, is a shame.

Saturday, the Blues Enigma Band played a sold-out show at one of my favorite restaurant/hangouts, Bistro Yaku, and it was unbelievable. The audience was frenzied - they started dancing during the sound-check, and it just got better from there; better and hotter. The place was completely packed. The show was hot in every way. And sweaty, too. I performed hatless for the first time in years. Possibly the most memorable performance I've done in Cuenca. 

The rush of Saturday night had barely worn off after a solid night's sleep, and I awakened to a beautiful day, when Felipe took Anthony, Claudia, myself and driver Diego to what he said was the home he grew up in. Fake out. We were going up a mountain that overlooked Cuenca and had an observation area at the top. Only Felipe had ever experienced the Mirador Boquerón mountain top.

He knew if he asked me to climb a mountain I would say no. So he didn't ask.

Felipe and Claudia reach the top of the stairs at C. Hermano Miguel and Larga. The seven flights of steps is a regular challenge for me, but Sinfonía Cafetería is only two blocks from the bottom, so there's that. But I digress. It's a gorgeous morning holding promise of a beautiful day, and it was! We were picked up by Diego and Anthony two minutes later.

Here I am, still happily unaware that I'm about to climb a steep, rocky, treacherous path about 1200' above where the El Boqueron parking lot is. You can't see the mountain top (or the path) from the parking lot. As we were mulling around, getting organized for the climb none of us were expecting, a guide from the park cut me a walking stick. This turned out to be a very good thing.

Almost to the top of the mountain, Claudia, Felipe and the guide, whose name I never got because I was at the rear (after having to stop every two minutes to catch my breath on the 30-to-60-degree inclined trail to the top. This was the first place I thought about giving up. A minute later, when my walking stick broke into three pieces and I almost fell off the mountain, I decided the top might be the safest place.

From the mountain top, Cuenca stretches out 2500' below.

Me Claudia, Felipe, and Anthony enjoy a hot stimulating, beverage given to everyone who makes it to the top. Picture by Diego.

Anthony, Diego, Claudia, and me, with more of the good stuff. Picture by Diego.

And, Felipe brought delicious sandwiches for everyone. And I got coffee! I needed coffee, although it was horrible: it was wonderful.. Felipe's sandwiches were, no surprise, absolutely great. Before Covid, Felipe was the chef-proprieter of A Pedir de Boca, my favorite restaurant in Cuenca. Covid restrictions did A Pedir in. 

Felipe contemplating the way down, after I told him I would need a MedEvac.

I discovered these hammocks set up overlooking a gorgeous Andean landscape right before the horses came. Probably a good thing. I love hammocks, and if I'd seen them earlier, I'd probably still be on the mountain top...

Of course, there's a swing, and of course, I'm a swinger.

Here are some people I hung out with:

Anthony wanted a photo with him using chop sticks. The chef at Thai Lotus - a new restaurant that has the best Thai food I've eaten in Cuenca (not a high bar) - thought he was funny. Which he is, with or without chopsticks.

That's the flute- and sax-wielding Judas, of the Blues Enigma Band, and his own band, The Judas Project with Claudia.

Speaking of Claudia, here she is at Incapirka, with a Cañari ceremonial costume.

And here she is hanging out at Ingapirca.

Only a few wandering-around pics:

Food Comment

From my dear, dear friends Orly and Julia at Capitán, Pulpo (octopus) Risotto. My new favorite octopus dish on the planet. This was a truly "Holy shit! That's great" dining experience. Orly again hits it out of the park. Capitán has my two favorite pulpo dishes in the world.

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