3rd day in Cuenca 31.01.2023

Early the same procedure as every morning, coffee in the garden, delicious breakfast, this time with scrambled eggs, watching the street life.

Today we had planned to visit the Botanical Garden. It was another sunny day, with about 25 degrees Celsius. We took the public bus to the outskirts of the city. The bus was crowded, but everyone got a seat. In between, an indigenous elderly couple got on the bus, the man with an accordion and the woman as a singer. They played 2 songs and then the woman went around with a hat, asking for a few dollars or cents, and then they got off again. Pauline calls it the "Music Bus". It at least brought some variety to the journey. After about 30 minutes, we got off in a residential area and walked another 10 minutes to the Botanical Garden. It had become very hot by then, and I was glad to have my sun hat. We had all applied sunscreen early, which is a must at this altitude. Pauline handled the registration procedure, no entry fee needed. Museums and gardens are all free, and then we went inside. The Botanical Garden is still new, only in operation for 3 years. Therefore, the plants are still quite young. Nevertheless, it is very beautifully designed, very clean and well signposted. The garden is also very large in terms of its area. We spent about 2 hours there and explored all the paths. We also saw some projects by the "volunteers", such as a beautifully painted wall and 2 large wooden chairs.

After the visit, we had to go to the Supermaxi market because Pauline had been tasked with buying the broken household items before moving out. Unfortunately, she was the last one in the house and had the misfortune of doing the handover. We got everything we needed there and continued to downtown. There, we went to the tourist shopping street because we wanted to get an alpaca sweater for Marie. It wasn't easy to find the right one in terms of material and color, but we eventually managed to do it.

In the evening, we went back to La Cigale for cocktails and dinner. Then we said goodbye to Pauline, who wanted to go to the shared apartment in San Juacin with all the purchased household items. Anne and I then walked to Plaza Park de Calderon at night and admired the lighting of the cathedral with its blue domes. It was very lively and interesting. Since the stores were still open, we discovered a very nice store of a cooperative with indigenous, handmade items. We spent a long time in this beautiful shop and then purchased a very nice alpaca blanket for 42 dollars. A true bargain. Then we returned to the hostel for our unfortunately last night.