At Guayaquil airport we were royally ripped off by a taxi driver who charged us $3 to leave the airport gates, turn right and immediately arrive at a buseta HQ. The busetas (shared people carriers) were recommended by Jorge and our triathlete friend at the airport as they are faster than buses and evidently the way many Ecuadorians travel to Cuenca. The terrain was absolutely dead flat for miles until all of a sudden we met an absolutely enormous mountain which we then spent the next couple of hours ascending. I had prime position at the centre of the row behind the driver, and as it became dark (and foggy) I was able to learn the Ecuadorian protocal for headlight usage:

1. only dip to see if something is coming the other way and enable you to overtake at corners or in very thick fog; otherwise main beam behind cars except...
2. when you catch a car up you should get right up behind them and flash your lights until they move over to the side so we can squeeze by three-abreast.

At one point we very nearly killed an extremely lucky pedestrian crossing the road dressed in black the other side of a corner. After some time it wasn´t all surprising to meet a traffic jam evidently caused by a traffic accident. From where we joined it we could see the line of lights snaking in and out of the mountain for absolute miles. The whole time we were in the car the driver would call up his colleague, also making the same journey in a different people carrier and spend ages fighting poor signal and shouting "donde estas?" at the top of his lungs. Despite the general good nature of our driver, he did encounter road rage twice: first was when someone had the cheek to overtake and try to pull in in front, so our diver sped up to not let him in until we were two-abreast in a single lane and a stretch of parked cars was fast approaching. The second time was when we almost ran into the back of the car in front, and our driver had to promptly swerve to avoid impact. He then drove up alongside the car for a good while and politely informed the driver that he was loco.

At the buseta HQ in Cuenca we waited in the rain for a taxi and met two very nice, polite residents that spoke excellent english... quite novel for us in Ecuador. We went to El Cafecito Hostel, which was recommended by Audrey on the Voyager III. We asked he taxi to wait as I went to see if they had space for us, and when I later paid the driver extra he couldn´t believe it and went to give me 50 cents back. The hostel has a strange mix of Morrocan/Celtic/Feasting Hall feel about it, with a very sweet little gothic hobbit at the front desk. They only have private rooms available, but that´s ok, I don´t think we´re ready for a dorm yet... not to soon after the Aida Maria.

Luckily the hostel kitchen was open and after surviving on minimal snacks all day (thank God for Fabian´s chocolate bar) we devoured a plate of pesto pasta and daily beer while listening to Natalie Imbruglia (followed by RATM). After an emotional day we were ready for bed, and the hobbit kindly brought us a teapot of hot water to our room!

Day 84 - Today was a total recovery day after the Galapagos elation of last week... neither of us could face getting our camera out for anything less than a sea lion. We dropped off our laundry with a nice little laundry lady and spent much of the rest of the day catching up with the rest of the world in internet cafes. We did go to the post office to purchase stamps to send our Galapagos postcards, but since they were charging $3 a piece we couldn´t justify the expense and so decided to wait and see if Peru can offer us a better price! We also had a walk around the town to buy Alex some new walking socks and walking boots (by the way, total losses to bolsa de Williams is a swimming costume, jeans, belt, 2 x pairs of socks and 2 x tops!!!), and a hoodie for me to stop me borrowing hers.

In the evening we returned to the hostel to find that our laundry had not been returned (due at 7pm) and we had to improvise with pyjamas.

Day 85 - By the time we woke up this morning our lanudry had been returned (over 12 hours late... lucky we weren´t leaving early today), but with a rogue pair of nasty, satin knickers and minus two pairs of mine. We went back to the laundry lady to return the offending items and when we told her that we were missing some pieces she told us not to worry as she´ll bring them to the hostel. We remain unhopeful.

After breakfast in a Colombian arepa cafe we wandered around the city with our cameras, stopping at the Panama Hat Museum that was less of a museum and more an interesting shop. Cuenca is the capital of Panama Hats apparently, and it perfectly fits the charming gentlemen walking about the city dressed in their finest suits. The best place to spot these smart old boys is the central square by the new cathedral that is missing half of its spires.

We made our way across town to the bus station and rather painlessly booked our bus to Peru for the next day. Tonight Ecuador are playing Chile to qualify for the World Cup and so I bought a bright yellow Ecuador football shirt from some bloke outside the bus station in preparation. Then back to the main plaza to have lunch at Rymipapa - ´a Cuenca institution´ to quote the LP. We had some excellent soup with potato, cheese and avocado. Alex went to do some drawing in a very dark museum while I spent even more time on the internet, later meeting up at the hostel for a cup of tea and a brownie. Cuenca seemingly rains most of the time.

To watch the match we went to a Mexican bar near our hostel and had some beers and a delicious burritto. Ecuador lost 2-1 but still qualified for the World Cup so everyone celebrated anyway! We also made some friends that were the provincial leaders for national security for the general elections, all meeting in Cuenca for the week (pictured). The chattiest was Hector Sanchez who thought Alex sounded like Hugh Grant.

Day 86 -Another rainy day in Cuenca. Alex and I spent the first half of the day slowly checking out and ensuring that she did not leave anything else behind. We then walked to the Museo de Banco Central (aka Pumapungo) and spent a while wandering around it´s ethnographic exhibits where you had to stand exactly in the middle of the room to stop alarms going off telling you to get back from the displays. The highlights were the shrunken heads, including our first sighting of a sloth (´s shrunken head).

We headed back into town to a restaurant in the LP... once again letting us down at a crucial moment (when I´m hungry) so we sped back to Rymipapa for a classic Ecuadorian almuerzo. So a whole rainy afternoon to kill before our bus departs at 10pm and spent mostly on the internet trying to track down our favourite South American songs that we have heard since July. Cup of tea and 50% of the alchemist in the hostel and then off for a strategic half a pizza followed by tiramisu - not only did it aid us to continue sampling tiramisus across the continent, it also meant we had pizza for breakfast to take on the bus.

At the bus station we waited for boarding and as I returned from the loo I found Alex absolutely surrounded by small children. They were on their way to Lima from the Oriente for a Judo competition and found us really exciting; they kept asking what different words meant in english, such as eye, ticket office and Simon Bolivar (plus lots we did not know in spanish). As we got on the bus they all shouted ´hello Alex, 27, hello Becci, 28´... everyone else on the bus couldn´t understand how they knew us!

In case anyone is wondering, my missing knickers never did show up.