From Banos we had a scenic bus journey to a town called Cuenca. This is the third largest city in Ecuador but you couldn't tell from looking at it. The town centre is very picturesque with colonial style buildings and of course the obligatory central plaza with a cathedral and some other nice buildings. Our hotel was located about 20 minutes walking distance away from the centre and involved walking through a dodgy looking ghetto area and up 4 sets of steep steps to get into town. However, we did get to see the dedicated graffiti walls with some really amazing artwork on it.

Since we didn't like the look of the museums too much there wasn't an awful lot to do in Cuenca except wander around. When we arrived the first evening it was getting late so we settled for food at the shopping mall before we all congregated in Ian and Dan's room for some drinks and card games before heading out to a club. It was a great night out because it was the first time we had all gone out as a group and it was lots of fun even if the club was a little run down!

The next day there was an optional excursion to the nearby national park. Since there are a lot more optional excursion to come, Bryan and I decided to save our money for a future excursion and had a proper look around town. It was a Saturday and town was pretty much dead. I wanted to go to a hot chocolate cafe which sells all sorts of different flavours of hot chocolate including mozzarella flavour (not sure how keen I would be to try that though!) but unfortunately it was closed along with all the places that sell empanadas (South American pasties). Later in the evening we went to the viewpoint called Mirador de turi where Katie bought some empanadas and let me try one. They were banana and cheese so a pretty bizarre combo!

Later in the evening our tour guide Paula had told us she would make a reservation for a really great restaurant. However, we got there and it was closed due to a fire they had recently had there so we had to go somewhere else which was nice but a bit pricey. The funniest thing was that it stated on the menu that they would refuse service to Manchester United supporters! Bryan kept quiet and fortunately he did get dinner! We made the mistake of getting a sharing platter for four people. It took forever to arrive and was literally the smallest meal we've ever eaten. We were also in a bit of a rush because a lot of group were going to see Batman at the cinema. They missed the beginning but did manage to see most of the film whilst I stayed at the hotel and played cards with a couple of the guys from the group.

The following morning our intention was to get a snack for breakfast before catching the bus onwards to Mencora and across the boarder to Peru. However, with it being Sunday it was even more dead and we couldn't find a single person selling food which was disappointing after our stingy dinner the night before! So that marks the end of Ecuador. I have to admit I didn't know what to expect from the country having read little about it but I was very impressed. The landscape was very pretty and the jungle incredible so I'm glad we included it in the tour.