“At an altitude of 2,550 meters (7,650 feet) above sea level, Cuenca enjoys a mild climate and a fabulous geographic position. Cuenca has the placid atmosphere of a small city, both deeply religious and artistic.”
It affects our life in many ways: 1) it takes 4-6 hours to cook beans on the stove without a pressure cooker, 2) you don’t do strenuous activity without quickly feeling out-of-breath and the weather is quite enjoyable even though we are located virtually on the equator — 1.45 miles high.
Since it has rained the last few days, we didn’t have an electrical power outage today. The stream behind our apartment is roughly a foot higher than it was two days ago. The water rushes so quickly down hill, I don’t know how long until it will be back to its former lower level.
Due to beans used in many meals, flatulence has been a problem since we arrived in Ecuador. It is most likely a combination of the high altitude and the abundance of beans. Don’t stand behind a foreigner for any length of time.
Tags: altitude, beans, Cuenca, flatulence, out-of-breath, power outage, rain
