The journey to Cuenca was our most difficult so far due to protests taking place in Ecuador along the Pan American Highway. To start at the beginning we left Bańos in mid morning aiming to get to Cuenca. To do this we had to change buses in a town about an hour down the road, this first part of this journey went fine. Arriving in the second town to change buses we realised we had missed the connection we had expected to get, this lead to us having to wait for over two hours for the next bus. This itself wasn't disastrous and to be fair we had been enjoying great luck in turning up in bus stations only minutes before the bus we needed left up until this point. After the wait we boarded the bus and we were headed now for Cuenca, unfortunately we didn't make Cuenca that night due to the protests. The protests were by the Indios who were none too happy about the government mining in protected areas and also the fact that the government for the first time were thinking about charging them for water. The protests, which to be fair is extremely effective due to the disruption caused, involved using telegraph poles, tyres and any other material as burning road blocks as well as road blocks about five feet high made of rock and earth. Due to these road blocks our bus couldn't make it all the way to Cuenca so we had to spend a night in a town about 80km away. This town was a small little town with only two hostels. The first one was full as many truck drivers had been forced to abandon journeys, to our huge relief the other hostel had room for us. It was soon after arriving that we met Glen who came down from her room after hearing my English accent to explain to us that she and her husband Steve had been affected by the protests as well and that this was their second night in the town. We decided that we would try and stick together to try and get down to Cuenca the next day which we knew was going to prove difficult. With daylight on our side we got a Camieneta (basically a pick up truck) to the first road block out of town. From here we decided to walk with the hope of finding another lift further along our route. We had a huge stroke of luck when a local man with great knowledge of the back roads was able to drive us about 40km to a town where we knew we could catch a bus the rest of the way to Cuenca without disruption. It was a huge advantage for us to have met Glen and Steve on this journey as they had a connection in Cuenca who was able to explain to the reasons for the protests and the likelihood of being able to travel any significant distances.
We eventually arrived safely in Cuenca where we spent a short while looking at different accommodation options as we felt that after the stressof the last few days we didn't want to stay somewhere too basic. We eventually found a satisfactory option and so decided to grab a couple of beers and relax on our shared balcony. After the beer we headed out for some comfort food in the shape of an Indian but unfortunately the food was not particularly good. Having said that it was enough to give us a full stomach so we could enjoy an good afternoon nap. The nap went on rather late in to the evening so when we woke up we headed out for dinner before again returning nice and full to bed. The next morning we were fully rested and looking forward to seeing some more of the city. Unfortunately our exploration was slightly hamepered by the fact I had a mystery foot pain which left me hobbling around the city. Still we managed to see all the main sights of the town including it's cathedral, market and very small (blink and you'd miss them) inca ruins. In the evening we were invited by Glen and Steve's contact to go to their house for takeaway pizza and games. We took round a couple of drinks and spent the evening playing a variety of different cards games and enjoying the company of Diego and his wife Betta who looked after us extremely well. We returned at a sensible time as the next morning we had to be up relatively early to make our way in to Peru. Hope all is well back home.
John