Here we are at the last stop in Ecuador. It took a 9 hour trip to get here. I am already getting a bit over the long trips. Today we played I spy and watched 'If I stay' which resulted in Rebecca sobbing so loud our leader had to ask what was wrong.

Began our visit of Cuenca with a walking tour of the city which included the Panama hat factory. Here we seen exactly how they make the hats and learnt Panama hats are actually from Ecuador and are called Paja Toquilla hats. Also visited the flower market, roses are one of the biggest exported products of Ecuador after oil, coca beans and bananas.

Did a double decker bus tour of the city. It was nice except we had to keep dodging the lines the were across the road as it was designed for people who are Spanish people heights.

This weekend happens to be the celebration of independence of the Cuenca from the Spanish. So there are lots of people about, and a couple of public concerts. We went to the first one which was really cool Mexican like music. Kieran, Sunhye and I went to mass at the immaculate conception church. Because of the importance of the weekend, the mayor and all his followers and cameras were there. We stuck out like sore thumbs, three white people in a church packed of Ecuadorian. Wasn't too hard to follow mass, but they did all take the eucharist straight on the tongue. Luckily the priest let me receive it in my hands

Nadine, Simon, Leigh and I then went to Casa National Park (3800m) to walk around a beautiful lagoon. Seen our first lamas and dealt with the altitude,  lots of rain and heaps of mud. Nadine fell right over and put her hand it a plant with vicious looking spikes. Took a while to get all of the spikes out of her hand.

Food here is pretty normal. Had a Magician do some pretty impressive tricks at one place. On the last night we all decided to go out for dinner to a place with enormous pizzas. We literally could only finish 3 pieces maximum out of 8. So now it's pizza for breakfast and lunch tomorrow.