Cuenca to Banos - 21st to 28th September

After a taxi, a boat, a bus and a plane back from Galapagos we landed back in Guayaquil where we said our goodbyes to Andy and Amy and jumped on a bus for the 5 hour trip back up into the Andes to Cuenca, Ecuador's third largest city. We finally arrived in Cuenca shortly after 9pm where we checked in to our hostel then went to the small pizzeria next door for some dinner then bed. After a week of haemorrhaging money on the Galapagos, it was a pleasant surprise to find that everything on the mainland was half the price.

The following morning we were up at 8.30am for breakfast after which we went back to bed for a while - still recovering from the travelling the day before! We finally got up and showered and headed out into the midday sun to explore Cuenca. The weather was sunny and warm which was a bit of a relief as our room in the hostel was unpleasantly cold and as usual there was no heating.

We headed along the cobbled streets to the main square, where we were set upon by an English student doing his homework assignment. We answered his questions about what we'd seen in Cuenca with a 'no' to each question and tried to explain that we'd only arrived the day before. We made our first stop of the day at a little bakery on the far corner of the square which served the best tea and cake and were promptly set upon by another group of students who were equally unimpressed with our lack of insight into their home town. Feeling like the worst tourists ever, we set out to tick our first sight-seeing box and visited the Cathedral Nueva which, like the cathedral in Guayaquil, was very beautiful. The cathedrals in Ecuador are very different from the ones we visited in Peru, they are much warmer and more inviting and much more tastefully decorated inside.

After the Cathedral we wandered around the lanes and visited the flower market where the smell of fresh blooms was intoxicating. Cuenca was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1996 and after spending the afternoon exploring the picturesque lanes and squares it was easy to see why.

The following day we visited the Museo Pumapungo. This modern museum is spread across 3 floors and includes a large collection of colonial art, an archaeology room and a very impressive exhibition of indigenous costumes and masks as well as covering the Inca ruins of Pumapungo located on the hill behind the museum. The highlight of the museum is the excellent ethnographic exhibition of Ecuador's diverse indigenous cultures which includes an impressive display of five tsantas (shrunken heads) from the Shuar culture (that still exists in the Amazon regions of Ecuador). The heads are those of enemies slain during wartimes. The practice is thankfully now illegal, so the Shaur perform the ritual with Sloth's heads instead. The museum was very interesting and we spent almost 3 hours wandering around the various exhibitions, despite the lack of explanations in English.

After three nights in Cuenca we headed 6 hours north along the Pan Americana to Riobamba (for the pricey sum of US$7 each!), the starting point for the Nariz del Diablo (Devils nose) train ride.

According to our guidebook Riobamba to Sibambe is the only remaining part of the original Guayaquil to Quito railway. Unfortunately this information was out of date and the Riobamba section of the line is also no longer operable. So, the following day we took a two hour bus journey back in the direction we came, to pick up the train in Alausi instead. Luckily the Alausi to Sibambe section of the line is the most interesting and is where the line takes its name. The journey is relatively laidback at first with sweeping views of Andean valleys but the final part of the ride is a 800m descent through a series of zig-zags (tight switchbacks carved out of the steep mountainside where the train has to reverse down the mountain in some sections). Very impressive but not worth the lives of the 4,000 Jamaican slaves who died during the build process.

Tourists used to ride on the roof of the train but after the death of two Japanese tourists in 2007 the authorities have banned this. The journey was interesting and very picturesque but certainly not as "exhilarating" as we were lead to believe - perhaps sitting inside rather on the roof takes some of the adrenaline thrill out of the experience!

We continued our journey north along the Pan Americana highway to the picturesque town of Banos. Locals call it "un pedacito de cielo" - a little piece of heaven and according to our guidebook it is as close as you can get in Ecuador to a perfect destination with an ideally warm climate. So, it would be fair to say our expectations of Banos were very high.

We got off to an ok start, it was a bit overcast which was disappointing and it rained a bit whilst we were trying to find somewhere to stay. After a short search we managed to find a decent hostal for a mere $16 per night. Result.....or so we thought. The bed was comfy enough but the shower was tepid (and that's being generous) and the room was freezing. Not the best combination. I guess we didn't notice it when we were checking in because we were a bit damp and relieved to find somewhere cheap as the other two hotels we tried were almost $60 per night.

We spent our first afternoon in "heaven" having a heavenly massage which I have to say was rather nice and the sun put in an appearance for a short while too so that made us feel better. We also found a really nice restaurant which did the best Mexican food and was pretty cheap so we went to bed feeling a bit happier.

We planned to get up early the next morning to go white water rafting but when we woke up it was really wet and miserable outside so we opted for a lay in instead. Actually, we didn't want to get out of bed because the room was so cold!

We finally headed out for breakfast / lunch and to look for an afternoon rafting trip instead. The town was so quiet and there were hardly any other tourists around so none of the tour operators were offering any trips in the afternoon so we booked one for the next morning instead (come rain or shine!).

The previous day we had seen several tour operators hiring out off road buggies so we decided to hire one of those instead and went off in search of some local waterfalls we had read about. We had great fun on the buggy and the weather cleared up a bit so we didn't get too wet which was a bonus. To be fair, the scenery was very impressive, Banos is set in a stunning location in a verdant valley surrounded by steep hills and the active Volcan (volcano) Tungurahua. A couple of the waterfalls were pretty spectacular too. The weather was really clearing up now leaving us fairly optimistic for a better day tomorrow for our rafting trip.

The next morning we woke up nice and early to the sound of torrential rain . So much for the weather clearing up! As we had paid a deposit for white water rafting we had no choice but to get up, get dressed and go and make the most of it. It was a real struggle but by the time we had picked everyone up and drove to the part of the river where we were rafting, it had stopped raining. We changed into our wetsuits (an added bonus!) and after some basic instructions jumped in our rafts and took to the water.

The water was Class 3+ (5 is the maximum) so the river was pretty fast moving but not too unmanageable. After 10 minutes or so, and after we had all gained a bit more confidence in the water, the instructor thought it would be really funny to shove me off the boat. As Dan was trying to pull me back in to the boat he shoved him in too! A right comedian! We both managed to scramble back onto the boat and at some point or other over the course of the session everyone ended up being shoved in - including the instructor himself much to his surprise!

The session lasted about 1 ½ hours and we had a great time. I started the day dreading it but really loved it and could have happily stayed out longer. It didn't rain once whilst we were on the water, in fact the sun was shining and Dan got great tan vest lines to prove it!

We spent our last afternoon in Banos in the thermal baths that give the town its name. Very relaxing and as an added bonus they had nice hot showers so we didn't have to use the ones at the hostel again!

Adios amigo's. Keep in touch - we miss you all.

Sue & Dan