A Second post from Cuenca

This photo of the top of a round tower is taken from the middle of the Escalinata. The second photo is of the same tower from the opposite side. The building would be interesting on level ground but set into a fifty degree slope it a becomes a geometric challenge.

The curved tile of  the roof is the norm for roofs here. I am glad of that, it adds to the near mythical  look of the town, like the  setting for an ancient fable. I am sure these tile are used because it makes practical and economic sense when the materials are at hand. Their use must be very ancient...did the Romans come up with them?

The Escalinata as it looked in 1935 and today . The older view is detail from a ceramic plaque on the wall at the top of the stairs. I counted them. From the top there are five groups with a landing below each. The stairs number from the top 22,11,17,17,17. The total comes to 84. I must have that play/movie stuck in my head, the 39 steps. Here its not 39 but 84.

with the bridge in the foreground a very nice composition. I am girding up my loins and pumping  the creative iron in getting ready to paint this view. Something I will come back to many times. The town is very paintable, it is the genuine article, very photogenic. I think it is the organic way things have been built, no great master plan, just bit by bit.

The wi-fi problem has found a partial solution. It involves going up to the third floor balcony of the Hostel across the street. My host, Marta, has rooms in buildings on both sides of the street. From that balcony there is enough of a signal to connect to the free city wi-fi. Since I like to dabble in things electronic and involving radio waves I am thinking of a technical solution to this problem, an antenna. Although it is a simple thing I might put it off until I am back in my shop in Maine. Finding the needed cable would be a challenge...and, as I am reminded often, I have only a month and a half left here.

On Tuesday the 11th I caught a bus at random. It was the route #10 I think. It was moving away from the city center, to the north. Past the airport and its approach lights set among packed houses. Past industrial parks and schools and warehouse. All the while in the chaos of traffic and people the bus stopped to pick up and discharge passengers. After a while the city began to thin a bit and there were fields of corn or cows grazing in empty lots between the houses. The road that had been a compromise between potholes and pavement turned to dirt. The bus pitched and rolled even more on the rutted unpaved path which was generally up hill. Eventually I was the only person left and the driver gave me a funny look...as if to say, "another lost gringo". I explained that I was making a "viaje turistico, para visto el campo" , a tourist trip to see the country. He said he needed to sit ten minutes to realign the schedule. So we did that. I sketched a house in the distance and he stretched outside. When the driver started up the engine again I dropped another quarter in the box and we were bouncing down the hills toward Cuenca. These city busses are a great way to get to know the area. They go a long way into the hills and throughout the urban areas yet cost close to nothing.