Cuenca, Ecuador

We left Mancora on an overnight bus to the city of Cuenca, in Ecuador. We were slightly nervous about crossing the border as we'd heard some worrying tales but, as always, it turned out to be perfectly safe. We were unable to check-in straight away so, in a zombified state from lack of sleep on the bus, Harry and I went off to explore the city.

We were so pleasantly surprised by how gorgeous the city is! We were expecting similar standards to Bolivia and Peru but Ecuador is, in fact, far more developed due to huge renovations since the state ownership of oil. It is a beautiful, colonial city with an impressive blue domed cathedral, amazing flower markets and endless bars and restaurants. It also has some of the friendliest people we've come across yet. Everywhere we went, locals were waving at us in greeting, we loved it!

A museum that the four of us were particularly interested in seeing was one that housed the famous shrunken heads! An Ecuadorian jungle tribe know as the 'Shuar' had a rather disturbing ritual of decapitating their enemies, hollowing the head so just the skin and hair remained and then shrinking it through a process of soaking and drying. Finally, it would be stuffed with sand and the mouth sewn shut in order to prevent the soul from escaping and seeking vengeance. Supposedly, the males were not considered a true man until they had first carried out this process on a) a sloth and b) an enemy. The man would then display the heads around his neck as a sign of his success. There are all sorts of myths about the powers these human heads possess and, as such, they are supposedly quite sort after in some black markets. Of course, human head shrinking is no longer legal in Ecuador but the Shuar people continue with the sloth tradition to this day. Although there were huge signs up everywhere warning us not to take photographs, the first thing Harry did was start snapping away so you can see the heads for yourselves in our album.

The museum had 3 floors of artefacts and information about Ecuadorian history as well as a big avery full of exotic birds such as toucans and macaws. After seeing them flying around in the jungle it felt a bit wrong to see them all locked up in cages!

When we steered clear of the gringo traps, we were stunned by how cheap Ecuador could be! Thanks to Georgie and Scott we all went for a lovely three course lunch with a drink for a whopping $2.25 each! Crazy! Likewise, we had to take advantage of their stupidly cheap happy hours. We started our crawl at one of the many shisha bars in town and consumed some of the nastiest cocktails I've ever encountered. The story from my Mum the next day about a traveller in Thailand who died from drinking a poisonous cocktail did make me wonder...! Although we didn't know it at the time, we were lucky Cuenca enforces a 12 'clock drinking curfew! We were chucked out of the bar at midnight due to the police turning up! Tut...gringos.

The next morning we said a sad goodbye to Georgie and Scott (until a few weeks time) and Harry and I enjoyed one more lazy night in our very comfortable hostel, thankful that we didn't have to get on a bus with our heads in the state they were after the rocket fuel mojitos!

We are now in Quito which we are so excited about because Harry's brother, Joe, is coming out to meet us!

Nicola & Harry

Copa Del Sh*thead Scoreboard: NH 135 - 151 HF