Gualaceo, Chordeleg Silver Filigree, San Bartolomé & Mirador de Turi Guide, Cuenca

In 2017, UNESCO designated Chordeleg a Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art, while Cuenca itself holds the title of World Craft City from the World Crafts Council. Taking a half-day loop through the eastern Santa Bárbara River Valley and finishing at the southern hilltop balcony of Mirador de Turi lets you meet the goldsmiths, ikat weavers, ceramicists, and luthiers who keep southern Ecuador's heritage alive.

1. The Eastern Artisan Valley: Gualaceo, Bullcay Ikat Macanas, Chordeleg Filigree & San Bartolomé

• Gualaceo & the Ikat Shawl Weavers of Bullcay (36 km East, 45 Minutes): Descending three hundred metres lower than Cuenca into a warm, orchid-filled valley brings you to Gualaceo ("The Garden of Azuay"). Five minutes before entering town along the highway in the communities of Bullcay and Bulzhún, family workshops practice the pre-Hispanic art of macanas (ikat tie-dyed shawls). Weavers bind thousands of cotton, wool, or silk threads into tight knots with cabuya agave fibres, dye them in natural baths of walnut husks (nogal), indigo, cochineal, and moss, untie the knots to reveal intricate stepped patterns, and weave the shawl on a backstrap loom before knotting the lace fringe by hand.
• Chordeleg Silver & Gold Filigree (5 km South of Gualaceo) & San Bartolomé Guitars: Ten minutes up the hillside above Gualaceo sits Chordeleg, where over a hundred family jewellery shops line the central square, spinning hair-thin threads of sterling silver and gold into lace-like filigree (filigrana) earrings, Including the classic Azuay hoop earrings known as candongas. Returning toward Cuenca via the mountain road through San Bartolomé lets you stop at fourth-generation luthier workshops carving cedar and rosewood classical guitars.

2. Closer to Town: Mirador de Turi, Eduardo Vega Ceramics & Baños de Cuenca

• Mirador de Turi & Galería Eduardo Vega (15 Minutes South of Parque Calderón): Perched on a green hill immediately south of the city, the white church and observation deck of Turi offer a sweeping 180-degree panorama across all four river valleys and the three blue domes of the New Cathedral. Two minutes down the road, visit the hillside studio and gallery of master ceramicist Eduardo Vega, whose stoneware murals adorn churches and public buildings across Ecuador.
• Thermal Mineral Pools at Baños de Cuenca: Fifteen minutes west of Turi at the foot of the hills, the volcanic hot springs of Baños de Cuenca bubble out of a travertine fault line at temperatures over 70°C, feeding outdoor thermal pools, eucalyptus steam rooms, and mineral mud baths.