We arrived in Cuenca at 7am and went immediately to the hostel where Luke had arranged to Mathilde, his friend from the Machu Pichu trek that we met in Vilcabamba previously. They were nowhere to be seen at this hour, but after the horrendous journey we endured we were in no mood for socialising either so went straight to bed. We woke up several hours later although i was still not feeling well from the night before. However, rather than waste the day we decided to go for a walk down by the river and into the centre of town. We had got about 300m and fortunately reached the grassy banks of the river when my body decided enough was enough. I threw my guts up again in front of everyone, just on the grass, on my hands and knees looking very dignified.

Once i was done we continued on a stroll as i felt remarkably better and took in the colonial town of Cuenca. The riverside walk was certainly very pleasant and the city seemed very grand in design. We walked briefly past some Inca ruins, but frankly by now I have seen enough of them and then headed into town where we took the obligatory photo of the main plaza. On the way back to the hostel we bumped into Mathilde and Carolin, but after trying to hold a conversation I gave in and once more retreated to bed for the rest of the day. That evening Luke, Mathilde, Carolin and a different Tom all drank and chatted away in our dormitory. I took part as much as possible with the conversation but submitted to sleep with the party still rocking.

Next day i was feeling a lot better, but this just meant the focus had shifted to my ankle which i had hurt at the waterfalls. It was not in a good place and hurt to walk. I basically stayed in bed resting for the entire day with only a brief walk to the launderette to break up the day. I did manage a plate of chips in a restaurant that evening though. Afterwards we had a very steady one playing cards in the hostel and i persuaded Mathilde to come to the Galapagos with me.

Next morning we tried to book Mathilde´s flights to the Galapagos but had some trouble as it said a domestic card was needed. We tried a friend of there´s who had a local card but had no luck, but finally managed to get it all sorted. We went shopping in town briefly for everything we needed for our trip to the islands and after packing went for a farewell lunch with Luke and Carolin. Once done we caught the afternoon bus to Guayacil where all flights for the Galapagos depart from. Fortunately, this journey was considerably better.