#3512: Wednesday, February 18, 2026: Penultimate week in Cuenca

Post 3512

- 15 years and 49 days since I started this blog -

Claudia like this AI stuff, made this from a photo she took.

Travel Journal

(written February 18, 2026)

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: Over 15 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 been a food journal only. Except when I travel (every Winter).

While I'm traveling, I let go of the weight-tracking and food journaling (except for food photos 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.

- - - - - - - 

It's been slow, here in Ecuador. It's the height of winter and the rainy season. 

That means it is cool and it rains in the afternoon. I know my friends back home are dealing with snow and frigid, single-digit temperatures. Here cool means a high in the low 60s and a low ten or so degrees below that.

I have no complaints about the weather. I know it rains every day, usually in the late afternoon. But the weather is usually bright and beautiful in the late morning. I'm living the truth that you get four seasons of weather every day here.

The music scene is slowed down. I've played a few open mic nights, but my only gig here is coming up this Friday night. I have never played less than during these last four weeks here. Last year in my first four weeks I played three gigs and a couple of open mics every week.

I'm always okay with 'down time'. I'm lazy. I can do nothing as well as or better than anyone. I've lost all the type-A compulsion to be productive - to whatever degree I ever had it. I'm pretty much a take it as it comes guy these days.

With all that, I still stay on top of things that interest me (like friendships, family - certainly not current events). I have no agenda. I do no business beyond acquiring food and weed. Nothing to sell, nothing to buy (except aforementioned consumables).

Since my last post, I have endured Carnaval. Until I was 'victmized' by Carnaval celebrants in my early visits here, I looked forward to the parades and concerts. But getting soaked and covered with foam whlie trying to join the celebration (that's part of it, and when there aren't parades or concerts, that's all of it), as well as having to be on guard against pick-pockets has turned me off to that, and in recent years, Mardi Gras and the three days leading up to it have been a time to hunker down for me.

I have made a couple of new friends here. I have seen most of my old friends, those still in Cuenca. I have a good attitude. I'm enjoying myself, even doing nothing.The gap left by my light playing schedule is filled by the other three parts of my life-style: eating well, smoking weed and avoiding drama. What I do wherever I am.

I'm happy. I'm the luckiest guy I know.

'Nuff said.

On to the photos:

People Pics

There's a good bagel shop in Cuenca. Of course, since the bagels are good, the owner is from Brooklyn. My new friend Adrian at Matthew Bagels. Nice mural, hun?

Claudia really gets into the beautiful a doors of the Unesco World Heritage architecture of Cuenca. In this case, this non-functional door had been 'redecorated' grandly. 

More AI artistry from Claudia. This one commemorating our trip to Sigsig (see Wandering, below). L-R: Me, Oswaldo (guide and new friend), Claudia and Adrian. Not pictured: Diego, friend, taxista, all-around great guy.

Wandering

I was having brunch at new restaurant find Lumanka Concepto y Sabor when this happened. Ahh, Cuenca.

The prettiest buildings in Gualaceo, where we stopped for breakfast on our way to Sigsig.

Sigsig

We first stopped at the big mercado in Sigsig to meet a friend of Claudia's, Oswaldo, who is a guide to the historic site just outside of town.

Claudia in the Black Cave, home of cave-dwelling humans 10,000+ years BCE.

Diego, Claudia, me, Adrian in the Black Cave.

The ruins at Sigsig include the Black Cave, inhabited in pre-History by the earliest settlers, thousands of years before Europeans, Incas, Cañari civilizations. The Cañari set the stones of a fortress that gave them a view of the entranceways to the valley. The Incas built on top of the Cañari fortress. Our group of four was joined by a wonderful guide named Oswaldo, a friend of Claudia's, whose narration made the trip much more enjoyable.

Food

Three dishes, a day's worth, from my dear Bistro Yaku. Up top, one of my favorite breakfasts there, huevos rancheros. In the middle, Beef tenderloin, frites, and salad. Ending with the first pumpkin pie I've ever eaten without the usual American spice (pumpkin spice) flavoring. Very interesting. I now love both.

The Cacao Spirit

I was introduced by chef-restauranteur-great friend Felipe to chocolatier Marcos, who, at Felipe's request, had made me some chocolate bars with chili (which he knows is my favorite, from my constant complaints that I can't find that flavor Paccari chocolate bars (the best Ecuadorian commercial chocolate bar). And, as Felipe foretold, Marcos' chocolate-chili bars were better! 

A big feature of the visit was my introduction to the white cacao bean, shown above with the 'normal' brown cacao bean. Both beans are from growers in the Amazon region. The way Marcos processes it results in a blonde chocolate bar that tastes like... chocolate. It was very good. I admit I still prefer the chocolate bars of dark chocolate, but it was very impressive on its own, comparisons aside.

A close-up of the bar I was smelling above. The strawberries are 'fresh', the white part is the chocolate made from white cacao beans, and the dark chocolate is single-source 70% cacao. Delicious.

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