Crossed the border into Ecuador today and could immediately see and feel the difference. Although in general a very poor country (almost 70% of people live below the poverty line) it felt much richer and better put together than Peru and certainly Bolivia. The infrastructure was good, the buildings were constructed well and not just cobble together and the people seemed better dressed and much more savvy. Even immigration don't just give you a stamp, they have an electronic sort of receipt thing that is printed into your passport!

Arriving at the outskirts of Cuenca, you could smell the money. It's the 3rd largest city on Ecuador and known to be pretty wealthy. It's a pretty. colonial town and the posada/hotel we were staying in was lovely - exactly the kind of place I would love to run - where you feel welcome and comfortable the minute you set foot in the place - the staff were super friendly and the rooms were nicely decorated with pretty much everything you would need there.

We went for a group meal in a restaurant that was later to be playing salsa music with a live 10-piece band. What a disaster. Then took forever to bring our drinks, then said we couldn't order food for 20 minutes. When we did order, we found that pretty much the only thing everyone wanted (steak!) wasn't available and the rest of their menu was very odd with Thai and Indian stuff going on (never a good idea in a foreign country unless it's cooked by Thais or Indians!). Now I appreciate I'm in Ecuador and things are done slower and differently and I don't mind waiting if I'm eating in a street cafe or somewhere cheap but don't disguise yourself as an upmarket restaurant with properly dressed waiting staff and then say you're too busy as 2 of the staff are spending their time blowing up balloons for a party later on! Not amused. Anyway, when the food arrived it was cold and nasty so we ended up getting a discount and scarpering pretty sharpish!

It's not a Panamaaaaaa!!!!

On Sunday morning we went to a Panama hat shop - Barranco. Now, this is all a bit controversial apparently as they are not officially called Panama hats. For well over a century, Ecuador has stood back while the world credited another country for its most famous export. The style of hat came into fashion when the Panama Canal was being built and then Roosevelt wore such a hat when he visited the canal so the name kind of stuck. To Ecuadorians, it's known as a toquilla-straw hat and to the connoisseur, it's a Montecristi, named after the most famous hat-making town of all in Ecuador. Anyhooo, the hats differ depending on the quality of the weave and can take anything from 2 days to several weeks to weave. The lady in the shop showed us the raw straw product and how they weave it together. The 'raw' hat is then put into a moulding machine which operates with a kind of water press and out comes the hat. There are loads of different moulds which was interesting as I always thought there was only one style of panama hat but what would I know eh? They ranged in price from about $18 to over $100. I bought myself a floppy sun-hat style one - perfect for those days on the boat in the Galapagos and on the beach in Grand Cayman! Aaah, this is the life!

After my hat spree, we went to the local market to buy stuff for the group meal - what fantastic quality fruit and veg - the best we've seen yet - and also meat - with no fat at all! Much better than anything I've seen in your average UK supermarket and certainly much better than in Asia which is usually riddled with fat! We bought 13 steaks (yes, 13!!) for $7 and a load of fruit and veg for about $5!!! Amazing - and we had been told that Ecuador was expensive!

Spent the rest of the day lazily wandering around the town, eating and then napping. Vee and I intended to eat in the hotel restaurant but most restaurants close on a Sunday (eh?) including that one so we intended up finding a pizza takeout and stuffing our faces. Bang goes that new healthy eating regime.....

So that was Cuenca - really liked it. Not sure there's a reason to go back but if I was passing through I'd definitely stay at the same hotel. It was also a good taste of civilisation after too long on the middle of nowhere beaches.