Two buses and a 9 hour journey from Baños took us south to Cuenca. We caught a taxi into town to our hostel which was located out the back of a popular bar/restaurant - luckily far enough out the back that it wasn't too loud. We enjoyed filling Colombian arepas and hospitality just down the street and then took advantage of 'our' bar's happy hour offers on cocktails.

The next day we got up reasonably early to explore the city and after our included breakfast headed straight for the main square. The small old cathedral wasn't even open (we were too early) so we crossed over the square and visited the massive new cathedral. We paid a dollar each and climbed the spiral staircase to the roof for a view of the town. Cuenca is certainly a much prettier place than most Ecuadorian towns; which seem to contain regulated looking concrete block buildings. But in Cuenca most buildings have heritage and from the roof of the cathedral we could see their red tiled roofs. We then visited the modern art and the Panama hat museums before lunch. Pub quiz knowledge: Panama hats aren't from Panama, they're from Ecuador. In the afternoon we posted some of our stuff home to lighten our packs. To do this we bought a shoe box from an old lady outside the post office and then watched her for 5 minutes as she wrapped it in sellotape - half way through we tried to say it was enough but she slapped our hands away and kept going. We then dodged rain showers as we walked along the river to the Pumaponga museum. We weren't impressed by the temporary (and unexpected) nude exhibition downstairs so spent most of our time upstairs in the exhibitions on Ecuador's traditions and indigenous groups. The process of how to make a shrunken human head for jewellery was interesting and it's good to know that this tradition stopped over 40 years ago.

The next day we headed to the Cajas national park but got a bit stressed out when we couldn't find where the bus left from. Eventually we found it down a little side street behind a supermarket outside the bus station and an hour later arrived at the ranger station in the park. The moorish landscape was beautiful with many lakes and enchanted forests with twisted trees. The well marked trail was only 4 Km long but took us 2 hours because of the boggy and difficult terrain. We could have done more walking but because of the bus schedules it was already 3pm and at 4,000 metres here we were told that the weather deteriorated shortly after 4pm. Back in the city that evening we went to a bar overlooking the river and ended up talking to two Americans who were hosting an open mike night. They played a few songs to get things going and then a few more when no one else wanted to take the mike. We chatted to them for what seemed like hours about the music industry, how expensive New York is and why so many Americans move to Cuenca. Cuenca was a nice place, not a thrill a minute place, but one of the most liveable places we've visited for a while.

Simon