Venturing Out: Turi, Ecuador

Turi, Ecuador

Written by Karen.
Right outside of the city of Cuenca and atop a surrounding hill is the tiny parish of Turi.  We had read that you can see a very nice and expansive view of Cuenca from this little town, so we walked across the City to catch the bus heading towards Turi.  Cost: .25 cents each for a one-way trip.  

Turi is indeed a very small town and after we walked around Turi proper, which included: a church, a library, 2 restaurants, a mini-market, a billiards bar, a Catholic school, two food stands, and several stores selling artisan objects, we ventured out of the town a bit to see what rural life was like.  Here are some pictures of what we saw:

View of Cuenca from the parish of Turi.  The city of Cuenca sprawls throughout the valley.

We climbed the hill to see if we could get a better picture of Cuenca.  Below on the left, you can see one of the food stands.  The woman was making french fries with hot dog chunks for the lunch crowd.  We purchased a bottled water and a coke from her for $1.25.  In the front of the picture is a blue glass and iron cross.  We have seen many of these crosses placed on the roofs of homes and restaurants.  The crosses are delicate and beautiful, especially when the sunlight shows through.  In the background is the northern part of Cuenca.

Turi Cathedral

Top of the hill!  View of Cuenca

South American dogs seem to be exceedingly mellow.  We see them just sleeping on the warm pavement, and barely bother to open one eye when we walk past!  I initially took this picture as I saw the three dogs sleeping, but after I took the picture I noticed that these dogs were sleeping in front of a family home.

To the left of the picture, you can see a table with a tablecloth; next is the laundry being hung on the wooden planks to dry; a kitchen worktable is on the right; and the water comes out of the pipe in the concrete tub to your right.  

These tethered sheep were next to the family home in the pictures above.  

This was another structure that we saw that is made out of pressed dirt and straw.  There are bamboo stalks and wood slats underneath the pressed dirt.

Here's a close up of the same structure.  You can see the straw and stones that are a part of the outside pressed dirt, as well as the wooden slats that are underneath.  

A small road that goes off of the main paved road outside of Turi.  Each home seems to have some land to grow vegetables.  We saw a lot of corn and cabbage being cultivated.

We saw a wide variety of homes on the outskirts of Turi.  We saw homes that looked like they were barely standing, to homes - like this one - that while old, was still in good shape, to homes like the one on top of the hill that looked very modern.