South America Travel Log

Principal is a tiny little town in a valley surrounded by beautiful mountains. I know about it because I met a Peace Corp volunteer who lives and works there and is trying to develop a sustainable economy and tourism. There is some magnificent hiking in the area. Some pretty spots are within 45 min - hour walk, but I guess the most beautiful waterfalls are at the 4 hour hike and the 6 hour hike. I’m not that fit or enthusiastic. I enjoyed just walking along the trail by the beautiful river for a while.

One of the tourism projects they are working on is the making of Panama hats. They have a farm to grow the crops, local people weave many different kinds of products and then they have a little store to sell their wares. If you just want to buy some weaving Chordeleg has many of the same types of things at about half the distance from Cuenca. If you are interested in going on a tour of the whole process and doing some hiking off the beaten path – this might be the place for you.

If you want to go on some of the longer hikes you have to go with a naturalist guide. I saw a sign that said you would get fined $15 if you didn’t.

How to get there from Cuenca

Take a bus to Gualaceo (60 cents) 1 hour. They leave every ½ from the Cuenca terminal

The bus drops you off in the main bus square and a bus to take you to Chordeleg will be waiting (20 cents) 15 minutes.

Go all the way to the end of the bus line where it turns around on this little side street and you can catch another bus that will take you to Principal (50 cents) 1 ½ hours. Principal is the end of the line.

The reverse trip is the same.

This is all fairly simple to do. The buses take you exactly where you need to go and they leave with regular frequency. You can always ask someone if you get confused.

Principal is a one horse town. There is only 1 hostel, so if you want to stay overnight there isn’t much choice in the matter.

Hostal Anabell
Price - $5.50 per person in a dorm style room. We had the room to ourselves, but in the unlikely event the hostel was full, I guess you would have to share.
Cleanliness – Everything was clean
Comfort – bed and pillow were a little stiff, but it was okay. The brochure said hot water, but we turned it on just to check it out and there wasn’t any. Since we only stayed 1 night we didn’t bother with trying to get it turned on, but if you were staying for a couple of days or went on a really long hike, I’m sure hot water would be important.
Character – Nothing special. It is really just a large home with the top floor converted to a hostel.
Amenities – They have a TV and DVD player, but only 1 DVD (Kangaroo Jack and no DVD store that I saw to buy another one. I think they will cook you lunch or dinner if you arrange it ahead of time.
Recommended? Like I said, you have no other choice. It’s a fine place to stay. The owner is nice, but since it is not hopping and she has her own life she is often gone. We had to just leave the money and key on the bedside table when it was time to go because she was no where to be found.

Chordeleg
We stopped and spent the morning in Chordeleg to go shopping. This town is famous for their jewelry stores. Especially their silver filigree. It is very pretty and seems to be reasonably priced. Jewelry stores surround the main plaza. Some have more expensive gold and gems, others have really cheap tacky stuff, and most have at least a little section of the jewelry they are famous for. If you like silver, it is worth a visit. They also have some stores with the woven goods and typical tourist souvenirs.

The stores closed for lunch at 1pm. That’s when we left, so I’m not sure what time (if at all) they open back up. The prices seemed more set to me at first than they normally do in souvenir shops, but we bought 2 things from one store and so we asked for a 2 item discount and he offered us a substantially lower price than the original quote (about 30% off) Honestly, I thought the original price seemed pretty fair, so we just took it and didn’t try to bargain any further.

Gualaceo
I don’t know how we could miss the famous Sunday market, but somehow we seemed to. There is supposed to be a market with all kinds of things including rows and rows of roasting Chancho. When we got to Gualaceo, we asked a guy at the bus station where the market was. He wanted to know what market because he said there were a couple of them. There was one that had the typical butcheries and a few veggie stands. Then there was another outside market a few blocks away filled with fruits and veggies (a cup of fresh cut watermelon, pineapple, mango with yogurt drizzled on top is .25 cents – delicious). But nothing like we were expecting. So, like I said, I’m not sure how you can miss something a town is supposed to be famous for, but either it isn’t anything too different from what we already have in Cuenca, or we didn’t end up in the right place.

This little adventure took place from late Sat morning to late Sun afternoon. I would recommend a tad more time if you would like to go on a long hike in Principal.

If you are just interested in going to Gualaceo and Chordeleg, that can easily be done as a day trip from Cuenca.