We arrived in Cuenca two days before Christmas and quickly set to task in finding somewhere to celebrate. It was my first Christmas away from home, so I was keen to make it a special one. We were absolutely beyond lucky that my family friends, Bugs and Rowan, who we spend each Christmas morning with in Melbourne, were coincidentally in Cuenca also. Such a weird and fantastic coincidence. We managed to find a restaurant at a ‘fancy’ hotel offering a three course, English style roast dinner. When we found out it was a whopping $AU35 per person, we snapped up the booking!

To orientate ourselves to the city we did the free walking tour and the next day was spent in the Cajas National Park, a 1.5 hr drive west of Cuenca. We squished in with the locals and caught the bus up and around the winding roads, eventually hailing our own stop, right where the little blue google maps dot indicated! (little blue dot = whole new mode of travel). Luckily, we found the park entrance and followed the driveway down into the site. We were already surrounded by a beautiful lake and mountain backdrop.
In a completely Spanish conversation, we registered and were given a rundown of which trails were most suitable. We were told we would have time to walk tracks 1 & 2 but after completing numero dos, walking any further was out of the question.

In the beginning there was a reasonably cruisey walk around the lake and up on to the road. Then we reached the ascent. After a gruelling 1.5hr, 3 km breathless climb to the top we reached 4200mt and were met with the most stunning views of rock formations, mountains near and far and an assembly of lakes. The flora surrounding us was gorgeous, from colourful wild flowers to cactus and spinifex grasses. We sat amongst it, with not another human in site and had lunch. Prepacked yummy cheese rolls from one of Cuenca’s oldest wood fire oven bakeries.

The walk was a loop and sadly the way down was equally as steep as the way up. I pretty much did a bum drag most of the way down while Adam slipped and slided in his completely grip less, but oh so comfortable, hiking boots!!

The bus was not as easy to come by on the way home, so we decided to jump on board a hitch hiking mission with two other hikers back into town. It was quite the hilarious experience. The guy took us via his daughter’s house before delivering us at his uncle’s restaurant in the heart of Cuenca. There were many laughs and some interesting stories in Spanish and English along the way!

On Christmas Eve, we set out with Bugs, Rowan and another family-less Canadian to see the famous ‘Pase del Nino’ parade. In a word, hilarious. The parade is a procession of floats and cars, horses and dogs, flowers, fruits, roasted pigs and beer cans! All in the name of honouring baby Jesus. It seemed that the reason for the parades long hours (9am - 4pm), was that there appeared to be no official choreography, just families, school groups and anyone wanting to participate, turning up in costume and walking the selected parade route.

The parade consisted of many children dressed in any costume they could find, some related to Jesus, others not. There were school groups dressed as nativity scenes and heavenly angels and dogs wearing vests laden with varying offerings, ranging from lollipops to bottles of rum. There were many horses draped with what looked like sheets and table cloths, carrying beautiful ladies and children, dressed in traditional garb.

One of the two most notable exhibits was a small girl, probably no more than one year old. She was perched on top of a horse, dressed from top to toe in a traditional gold and burgundy outfit, including a wide brimmed hat, beaded dress and one-year-old appropriate makeup! She could have been easily mistaken for a little china doll. The horse below her was draped with a cloth, weighed down with what we believed were gifts to honour baby Jesus. Jesus obviously had a massive appetite as this cloth had lollies, chips, fruit, vegetables and alcohol attached and it was so large it fell from the horses back and almost touched the ground. The feature of the whole ensemble though was the whole roasted chicken, head attached, that sat perched behind the girl, in an aluminium tray.

The next best exhibit was a tall cart on four wheels which displayed a whole pig, at least a metre long and half as wide, roasted and splayed out on all fours. Its head was still intact, its skin perfectly crackled, wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigarette. It really was astounding to witness how in tune with Jesus the Cuencans were.

Christmas Day itself was super relaxed and delightful and made exponentially better by my discovery of the Jib Jab app and 'Feliz Navidad' e-card! For lunch we spoilt ourselves with our own homemade picnic of Camembert, Cheddar and Goats Cheese, prosciutto, hummus and guacamole and headed for the picturesque river banks. We basked in the sun, drank local beers, gorged ourselves on far too much food and reminisced about our favourite Christmas memories. The best part by far, we had nowhere to be and there was no running around. What a luxury.

Our 3 course Christmas dinner was not exactly what we expected and left a little to be desired but did include great company and finally some decent wine. All in all, it was an absolutely perfect day.