Monday started out very sunny and it promised to be a little warmer day than Sunday, maybe 70 degrees. We had decided to devote this day to visit Amaru Bioparque, a nonprofit zoo that rescues animals from bad situations like circuses, traffickers, or ones illegally kept as pets. It’s on the edge of Cuenca, high on a hill, providing a great view of the city but also very steep ups and downs on the one-way path that leads through the animal exhibits. We took the Tranvía and a taxi to get there, arriving about 9:30, not long after it opened. There was maybe only one other visitor there; we nearly had it to ourselves.
The park is large and has a very large collection of animals, mostly from Ecuador, although they also have a few African lions that weren’t visible today. Many birds, including two critically endangered Andean Condors, macaws, parakeets, guans, ducks, and others. There was a White-throated Toucan that was extremely tame, allowing Nathan to get very close for photos and even to pet it lightly.
They also had ocelots, jaguars, coatis, many snakes including the very venomous fer-de-lance (terciopelo) viper, Galapagos tortoises, llamas, deer, many amphibians, endangered Andean spectacled bears, two-toed sloths, and lots of other animals. We spent three hours seeing the park, visiting each exhibit and traveling the path between them. It was quite a strenuous walk but very interesting and well worth the $8 entrance fee (only $4 if you’re 65+).
When we finished, the parking area attendant called a taxi for us. It was a small pickup truck with a club cab for passengers, labeled “transporte mixto” in Spanish, which can transport both people and cargo. Nathan asked the driver to take us to the San Blas Church, where there is a nearby restaurant he had been to previously. On the way, we traveled on some of the Pan-American Highway which is a 6-lane divided highway in that location.
Lunch was incredibly inexpensive, costing just $7 for the two of us. I had noodles with a mushroom sauce, an excellent hominy, bean, lettuce and tomato salad, and watermelon juice. Nathan had vegetarian lasagna, salad and juice. It was a place filled by locals, very informal, cheap, and delicious.
After lunch, we walked through the historical part of the city back to the Tranvía line. I was pretty tired from the zoo hiking and my full stomach slowed me down even more, so I was happy to be heading back to the apartment. After relaxing during the afternoon, Nathan walked a couple blocks to the nearest small market to pick up some vegetables and then made a healthy chicken and vegetable stew for dinner.
Lori's Travels 