9/11/12

At around 5pm, just under 4 hours after setting off, we arrived in Cuenca just as the rain came. Grabbing a taxi we made it to our hostel and settled ourselves in before immediately heading back out.

One drawback with these medium length journeys is that there is not necessarily a working toilet on-board. And the journeys aren't long enough for a food/toilet stop. This means I tend not to drink enough leading to me arriving dehydrated and normally hungry. This was the case today so we got our cagoules and braved the rain to find a Lonely Planet- recommended café where clearly the notoriety of being in a few travel guides had got to the English owner and his staff. We were not well attended to at all! Customer service is still important for the success of a restaurant, no matter how good the food (and the food was really good!).

Not wanting to wait around any longer than necessary, we decided to have dessert across the road at an amazing Italian ice-cream shop where we got chatting to an older couple from the States who were looking to join the growing expat population in Cuenca.

10/11/12

After a terrible night's sleep caused by the rowdy patrons of the nearby karaoke and other bars, we spent the day wandering around the city of Cuenca, Ecuador's third largest.

It was a gloriously hot morning and, on foot, we made our way first to some underwhelming Inca ruins to the south east of the city centre. We then walked along Rio Tomebamba a rather pretty and fast-flowing river that separates the centre from the outskirts.

We had a quick detour for an ATM before going to Barranco, a museum-cum-shop all about Panama hats, which despite their name are actually made in Ecuador. It was fascinating to see so many Panama hats, particularly those of different colours. If we didn't have so much travel left, we probably would have been tempted to purchase one!

Having had no breakfast we stopped for a drink at a Spanish café before exploring an artesan market, an outdoor market and the small flower market. We also passed and marvelled at San Francisco church.

Reaching the main square we took some photos of both the new Cathedral started in 1885 and the old Cathedral started in 1557 which is opposite the central park, known as Parque Abdón Calderon. In the park we decided it was a good opportunity to have some lunch at a nice restaurant: house special sandwich for Kirsty, chicken and mushroom crepe for me.

After lunch we made our way to Avenida Gran Colombia, the main shopping street which we walked along for several blocks. Being Saturday, Cuenca was very busy both in the shops and also on the pavements and roads. Upon reaching another square and yet another church (San Sebastian) we caught our breath and had a rest on a bench.

Our final destination was Plaza Rotary where we stumbled across a hairdresser who gave my curly lock a trim for the first time since Indonesia! She did an excellent job as she nattered away in rapid Spanish that I didn't fully follow and all for the princely sum of $1.50, bargain!

Returning to the hostel, we talked and planned more about our trip in the coming weeks before my tummy dictated it was time for dinner. Initially we tried to find an Italian restaurant without any success so settled on an Austrian café imaginatively called Café Austria (!) where peppered steak and lasagne were the orders of the day.

11/11/12

At the sound of the alarm we woke and got ourselves ready to leave the deathly quiet hostel(this being a Sunday in South America...). As we hadn't paid and there was no staff up and no obvious way to rouse any we left the door key and payment behind the reception desk. Hope they found it!!

Going out into the street we walked to the main road where we got in a taxi headed for the bus station. We managed to buy a ticket for the bus with 30 minutes to spare, so after buying breakfast at one of the kiosks we sat and waited for our bus. Typically the bus driver and conductor were late appearing but we got ourselves and our stuff on-board and into our front row seats without any problem.