Cuenca is the 3rd largest city in Ecuador. It is in the Southern Andies of the country, so it meant we were staying up in the high altitude for a bit longer.

We were heading south to Peru, but needed to break up the journey so we stopped off here for 2 nights. We had booked into a hostel, who didn't have any record of our booking...so we ended up in a room with 1 wall being a garage door...not only that but it was freezing and the bed was too small we couldn't lie down in it....needless to say we moved hostels the next morning....then set off to do our usual sightseeing around the place. Again none of the tours really grabbed us so this was a fairly chilled day. We went to the Centro Museum.....mainly for its collection of shrunken heads...and we weren't disappointed! They had a good few on display, but unfortunately pictures were not around so we couldn't capture these ones for you!

After that we mainly strolled around checking out the usual churches, squares etc etc, then set about working out the best way to Peru!!! Once we had our 7.15am bus booked over to Mancora, we had a late lunch. it was an amazing Coloumbian place, where we had the traditional arepas, but with various toppings....it was soo good...for once the lonely planet got it spot on with its food recommendations...and the drink the owner told us to try was a nice surprise...it was some kind of cold milk, chocolate and cinnamon...tasty. If you liked his food he had a bell above the door to ring. Of course we did ring it because it was GOOD!!!

As we were so full we decided on a late dinner...which would be had after a visit to the local microbrewery...Shane was in his element here....although they didn't have the one he wanted, Irish Red, he was pretty happy with the other offerings...especially given the size of the glasses!!! Unfortunately even though we really want one of the tankards for when we got back home, we decided that we couldn't take one on this occasion!!!

By the time I had managed to convince Shane to leave the beer house it was too late for a proper dinner so we decided to try a popular fast food place...what we didn't realise was exactly how fast it would be...chips and burger into the microwave for Phil and Shanes giant hot dog came out of the unit where it had been boiling and steaming all along!!! So it was about 90seconds between orders and getting the food.....The Rossa could learn a thing or 2!!!Not that we would be recommending it...we've had better!!