#3346: Thursday January 19 2025: Back to Cuenca!

Post 3346

- 14 years and 19 days since I started this blog -

Solo set at Lecker's.

Travel Journal

(written January 19, 2025)

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 14 years ago I started this blog as a food journal. I had a Type-2 Diabetes diagnosis, and needed to lose weight. Initially, that's all I did here: Journal my food intake and my weight. It contributed to a loss of 20+% of my body weight in 6 months, and continuing has kept me on track since. I started adding commentary after a while, but recently it has returned to a food journal only. 

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). I write about my experiences, and use it as a photo dump. And that's where we find ourselves now.

- - - - - - - 

I'm in Cuenca, Ecuador. I got here Friday night (more on that in a minute). As I write this, I have just got back from lunch. I'ver been here for about forty hours.

The last couple of days in Chiang Mai were pretty uneventful. I had an interesting jam, and then it was all about getting ready to leave, saying my good-byes. 

The trip to Cuenca from Chiang Mai is arduous. I have never found a single ticket (even with multiple stops) that could get me there. Basically, all my research has determined the best route involves the return of a round-trip from JFK to Chiang Mai, then JFK to Cuenca. The trip to Chiang Mai involves two flights, the trip to Cuenca, three.

Every year I book my flights in May, when the schedule for the first quarter of the next year becomes available. This inevitably means that there will be flight changes along the way. They are typically very minor - slight schedule changes. This year turned out to be the exception.

The flight out of Chiang Mai to Seoul, Korea, at the end of my trip, was canceled and then replaced with a flight on a different airline to Bangkok, and then a flight from there to Seol to meet my Seoul to JFK flight. This moved my departure time up by five hours.

Thus began the most difficult flying experience of my life.

After checking out, I took my baggage (checked suitcase, carry-on bass guitar and backpack) to my friend David's apartment. I was going to hang there until I had to leave for the airport at 4:30pm. At around 2:30, I got a text from the airline that my flight to Bangkok was going to be delayed. About 20 minutes after that, I got a call from the airlines that I had been rebooked on to what appeared to be my original direcrt flight, with a different flight number.

A good thing, except I couldn't stay at David's that long, he had things to do. And I was cought short and unprepared for the late afternoon. So my trip began with a five-hour layover. Not tragic, and I was glad for the better flight.

It was about an hour after takeoff when I realized the THC gummies I'd bought to get me through the long first two flights (a total of 21 hours flight time, plus a 3-1/2 hour layover) weren't working. At all. 

I can't sleep on planes. Except when I'm stoned. There was nothing to do about it, so I did a lot of meditation, and watched some movies whose dialog I couldn't understand because of the crappy headphones and my crappy hearing, and captioning available only in Korean or Chinese.

A 4-hour layover at JFK was pretty easy. I have never, ever had an easier trip through customs, and quickly found the path to the Avianca Airlines ticket counter - one stop on the AirTrain - walked right up, check my baggage, get my tickets (JFK-Bógota, Bógota-Quito, Quito-Cuenca). I was told I would have to pick up my bag at Quito to go through Ecuador Immigration, then re-check it (same tag) for the final flight.

The first - and longest, at seven hours - flight ran smoothly, but it was uncomfortable. I have never sat in a seat with less legroom. I literally could not sit with my legs straight out without my knees hitting the back of the seat in front of me hard, so had to put one knee in the aisle and the other between the seats in front of me. Oh, and no amenities.- no entertainment, no wifi.

By the time the flight took off, I hadn't slept since I woke up 40 hours hours earlier. I'd been in airports or on flights for 32 hours.

The Bógota airport was pretty. My ticket said I boarded at 11:05pm, another long layover. I went to the gate around 9pm, to make my plea (as I do every time) for early boarding for my section, so I could stow my bass out of the way. No problem. I asked. where I could charge my phone? Over that way. So I charged my pnone, set an alarm for 11:00.

At 11, I went back to the gate. There was nobody there but the agents. I went to the one I'd talked with an hour-and-a-half ago. I missed my flight? Yes. Doors closed ten minutes ago. But my ticket said this was when I board. A shrug. Didn't I hear the announcement? No, I did not. Because I was over that way, charging my phone. Look at my ticket: It clearly states boarding at 11:05. How can you help me? My bag is on that flight.

At that, the agent agreed to re-ticket me. The next flight, however, wasn't until six in the morning. And the next Quito-to-Cuenca flight after I landed wasn't until 7pm. I asked if they'd give me a hotel overnight - no, and it wasn't a good idea, because all the hotels were in town, and I'd risk missing the flight.

So, I added twelve hours to my journey, just like that. 

I arrived in Quito - thankfully, only a two-hour flight - went through immigration in seconds - consumed by exhaustion and worry about the bag that had arrived there nine hours earlier. I went to the baggage claim, and circled the periphery looking for an office where my bag might be held for me.

But there were no offices. No holding area for unclaimed luggage. My stomach in knots, I vainly looked for some kind of official. None around. Finally, I asked a porter (having to explain that I didn't need his services) about bags that had arrived last night. He just pointed to the carousel my flight's bags were unloaded on. No, those were the bags from my flight just landed. My Spanish was overloaded, and I couldn't understand anything he was saying to me. But he walked me over to the carousel, rotating bags from my flight.

I got there, looked down, and my bag practically rolled into my hands. Unbelievable. I just had to laugh at the idea that my bag had been rotating around that carousel for nine hours, waiting for me.

By the time I arrived at wonderful Hostal Yakumama, whose Bistro Yaku has been a favorite place in Cuenca for its excellent restaurant and live music program, including the longest-running open mic in Cuenca, I hadn't slept for 71 hours, almost three days. I'd also crossed twelve time zones. And I was at an altitude 8400' above sea level.

I was a wreck.

I have never been more exhausted. I arrived at 8:15pm, to a warm greeting (by name, from everyone there) and was promoted to a better room for my troubles. 

According to my iWatch, I was asleep by 9:15. I have no idea. 

Claudia came to see me for 'lunch' (breakfast for me) the next day. I was playing with her band, the Blues Enigma Band, at 5pm.

I only have a few photos, of the last days in Chiang Mai, and my first hours in Cuenca:

People Pics

Playing at Lecker Bistro's open mic in Chiang Mai.

This is my friend, Nat (pronounced 'nut'). He recently opened up a tiny coffee shop near me, dedicated to selling local beans, and serving the best pour-over coffee I've ever had. Watching him prepare your cup - every single cup is made one-at-a-time - is entertainment of the highest order, and also a lesson in precision. Everything is weighed and timed. The quality of the cup is extraordinary, and Nat's care and precision are great to see.

My budtenders at 64Buds, who befriended me and gave me great weed throughout my stay this year. Wu and Mai. I think. I was pretty stoned.

Rychy and JoJo, two extraordinary singers. Rychy is a newly arrived expat. I've known Joyce (JoJo) since my first trip to Chiang Mai seven years ago.

Finally, in Cuenca, brunch with Claudia.

Wandering

Sunrise over Seoul. From the aisle seat.

Food Comment

Last breakfast at Kati Breakfast and Brunch, root vegetable salad with coconut green tea and scrambled eggs (not shown, because I'd already eaten them). A memorable breakfast. Kati is my favorite new breakfast spot in Chiang Mai.

Bistro Yaku has been one of my favorite places in Cuenca since I started coming here. Originally a live music and open mic destination, I quickly became enamored of the food and really enjoyed the warmth of the staff. Over the years, the relationship has only gotten better. BY is the restaurant of Hostal Yakumama, a hostel I only learned last year had a few private rooms to let. I made sure to make arrangements to book there before I left last year. On to the food. This is a custom dish I started having last year, and I think it is one of the best breakfasts an omnivore can eat: Vegetable omelet with cheese, a whole avocado, steak and a delicious salad. I don't have to order it any more. They know I'm going to ask for it.

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