Is There Room for Both Che and Scooby?

Day 139: Cuenca, Ecuador

So the 52 churches dotting Cuenca weren’t tempting us but I did think we should try to do something of culture that wouldn’t lull us into a dead sleep so I looked into museums.

Cuenca didn’t have a lot to offer but there was the Museum of Modern Art, which seemed much more interesting than the religious and portrait museums – plus it was free.

The museum was a detention centre for alcoholics until the early 1980s and now it primarily houses Ecuadorian artwork.

I had been through some great museums in Central America and was hoping to see Ecuadorian work but the museum is a bit of a haphazard mish mash.

It started out interesting with a small amount of graphic work by a local artist and then the site seemed to be monopolized by an enormous children’s exhibition, which included the mosaic of Scooby Doo.

Sure it’s scooberific to be 12 years old and have your glued glitter in a museum, but don’t have they childrens museums for that?
 

 
At the end we found a featured artist, Gonzalo Arce, who had some interesting photos and surreal looking paintings and things looked like they were turning around.

But not for long as we were counting on buying interesting postcards from the gift shop but it turned out they had the same lame ones you could buy anywhere.

I guess you can’t complain too much when it’s free.