The #8 Bus

I've always enjoyed traveling by bus and train. You're suspended in time with little control or demands placed upon you and your brain can go into a kind of stillness that is very receptive to the present and immediate. Just taking in the views that scroll by the window is enough to keep me absorbed for the length of the trip. I've figured that the reason I don't like traveling by plane is that the views outside the windows are for the most part lacking in narrative.

In any case, we chose to take the #8 bus at random, not knowing what to expect. Visitors to Cuenca have found that just taking a bus, any bus, will provide a nice little travel interlude of about an hour each way, for the modest cost of 25 cents. So my plan is to take every single of the 29 bus routes currently operating, from beginning to end. The #8 bus goes from Los Trigales to San Joaquin and back. First we rode to Los Trigales but the window was so dirty that all I could see were the broad outlines of the view--my eyes were hurting trying to focus! I got lucky on the way back and I was able to take some shots.

Pretty much any bus route will take you out to the countryside. This one took us to an area of small plots of farmland, with rows of produce creating neatly laid out patterns.

We saw cows grazing.

And farmers farming.

And these whimsically drawn birds advertising fertilizer.

And this Andean McMansion...wait, back up...what was that? In the middle of all these modest homes and small plots there is this structure, the likes of which I last saw in Las Vegas? We figured this is quite likely an example of the commonplace phenomenon of locals migrating abroad to work very, very hard and save so they can return and build their dream home. This person had big dreams.