suburban dreams

we had heard a rumor of a bowling alley somewhere in cuenca, and since bowling has become an activity solely for the rich in new york, we figured that this would be a nice opportunity to play a fun game normally inaccessible. we were told that the bowling experience featured 3 foot high beer towers for all to share, and that it was in the mall. we knew of one mall in cuenca, millenium plaza. it is a serviceable mall, small, but bigger than what i would have ever expected to see in cuenca, which is for all intents and purposes a mid sized south american colonial city. when you walk across the river, you can see that the new part of town is not colonial, cobblestoned or anything like that, but rather a suburb just like any other. still, its only a 2 minute walk; down some stairs and across a 25 foot bridge form the center of town for which cuenca is known.

we knew there was another mall besides millenium plaza and that it was supposedly bigger. this other mall, mall del rio, is where the bowling alley is. it was something we were doing for the first time, but seeing as it was just going to the mall, we did not embark on our journey there with any particular sense of doing something new or interesting. we ate lunch before hand at the market - freshly killed and roasted pig torn straight from the splayed body, moté, vinagred onions and tomatoes, and 2 llapingachos. we ate sitting across from a family who was sharing a larger portion of pig. the fat from the skin splashed as we crunched into it.

then we got on the bus to get to mall del rio. the ride took us all around the city - around the outermost roads until there was nothing we recognized. the city was surely no longer colonial, and then no longer suburban. still, i had the sense of not being too far from that which i recognized. we had gone in a semi circle. the mountains behind where we got off the bus were pine and uninhabited by humans. yet, across the narrow street was a mall of suburban american proportions. it was impossible to see the entire structure at once. it was a bright red monstrosity guarded by armed men in bullet proof vests. we walked in through the parking lot as part of a cluster of people who got off the bus at the same time. when we came into the mall, it was clear that we had been missing half of what exists.

the mall opens up into a food court. there are all the fancy bread and coffee spots that the center of town has, times 2. there was a pet store, there was a bar and a liquor store with a lady handing out free samples of apple or coconut flavored vodka. anna and i grabbed a couple of cups and explored through these shops and clothing stores selling italian made suits and otherwise useless items to 98% of the ecuadorian population. it was fascinating in a way, and in the center of it all was a fountain featuring a copy of a statue of a roman soldier. a train rode people around the mall who did not want to walk. there were two floors of this and at the far end of the mall were the bowling alley and the hipermarket, which is apparently ecuadors answer to walmart. there was something very disturbing about it.

the bowling was fun though. we only bowled one game, since the games werent really quite as cheap as we had hoped for. it was one of those glow in the dark alleys, which probably added some price to the whole thing. the towers of beer were exhorbitabtly expensive. we had a cheaper overall bowling experience in montana. but it was fun while it lasted. and, it was better that we chose not to consume the tower of beer seeing as that i was in for special things during that one game. i bowled a 212 - you can ask anybody - and i probably wouldnt have if i were drunk. the only pin i left standing was the very last pin of the 10th frame. it was a ceremonial pin.

after the game we left and took a cab back to the city. a $2 cab, during which it hit me what was so disturbing about the mall. the whole idea of suburbs, as they exist in the u.s. is about getting away from the city. the unfortunate reality is that it has traditionally been the rich who have been able to afford their semi-solitude, and many cities in the u.s. now feature beautifully manicured suburbs and decaying city centers. nobody with money cares about it. however, the majority of the suburbs you find in the united states are located well outside of the cities. certainly not in walking distance. the mall is a feature of these suburbs, where the people need to drive everywhere they go and can thus condense their travels into one stop at the mall where they can find anything they want. on the other hand, in cuenca, this is not the case. the mall del rio is only a 10 minute drive from the center of the city aka. walking distance. the mall is not here because it would be so difficult for the residents of the "suburbs" to get to the center of town. the mall is here because people wanted a mall. they probably watched one too many american movies and decided that the standard of wealth should be suburban consumerism. there is no doubting the fact that american media and the immense percentages of immigration (and the ideas the immigrants send back or come back with) have affected cuenca, but rather than the cosmopolitan standard of wealth that cities such as new york and san francisco share (pedestrianism, nice restaurants well located, thriving streetlife etc.), more and more it seems that cuenca is following the suburban isolationist model of wealth. so, instead of having all of these stores that are located in the mall spread out throughout the center of town, thus sprucing up the town and making it more convenient (surely cuenca could use one or two fewer bootleg dvd stores and one or two more nice restaurants or cafes in some of its more barren central parts inhabited by said dvd shops and stores selling liquor and the inevitable drunkard lying down next to it) for people to walk around. cuenca is feeding into some suburban fantasy it has, where the people living across the river, though it is but a 2 minute walk from the center of town, must go to the mall to get their items as though they were separated by the grand canyon rather than the river tomebamba. it began to disturb me on the way back from the mall that as cuenca moves away from its colonial days and the city spreads out from the center to the outer regions that these outer regions should strive to be suburbs rather than new city neighborhoods. that cuencas model for the future is based more on the detroit/buffalo urban decay model rather than the new york/san francisco/european city lively city center model.