El Cafecito-Cuenca

Becca We arrived in Cuenca around midday, after taking 2 buses starting at 5AM that morning from Montanita. The hostel we picked from our book, El Cafecito, doubles as a hostel and a cafe. Kind of a weird arrangement as we came to realize later because our room was right next to all the cafe tables (we could spy on patrons from our window) .. and though we were lucky to have a semi bathroom, it lacked a shower. So in order to shower we had to walk through the dining area (and for some reason ...

De retour des Galapagos, je saute dans un bus pour Cuenca. C'est sense etre la plus belle ville du pays ainsi que ma derniere etape avant de passer au Perou. De plus, je compte peut etre y retrouver Karina, la jolie equatorienne rencontree dans l'avion lors de mon arrivee dans le pays. Ca fait deja 3 semaines et je ne lui ai jamais donne de nouvelles. Premier coup de fil, elle se souvient de moi mais pretexte de ne pouvoir me voir avant dans 2 jours, obligations familiales et de travail oblig...

Having serendipidouly caught the Sucre Express bus on Monday (destination Cuenca) to nearby Latacunga, Rob and I decided to try our luck by waiting along the Panamericana around the same time -- we had boarded the bus at 1035hrs then. After waiting around anxiously and having about 9 Ambato-bound buses pass us, I finally caught sight of our desired bus and Rob hollered for me to flag it. Bags safely stowed, we clambered on and paid US$10 each for the 10hour journey. Yaay us! [Slight un-yaaay:...

Ja da ich nicht in Guayaquil rumhängen wollte bin ich noch fix für einen zwischenstop nach Cuenca, schöne Stadt und die Fahrt durch den Cajas National Park. Vom Flachland in 4000m in 2 Stunden, viele verschiedene Vegetationen und gerade der Nebelwald hat seinem Namen alle Ehre gemacht, ansonsten nicht viel passiert da doch recht kurz. Abends mit ein paar Leuten aus dem Hostel zum Essen und auf ein paar Drinks. Hätte man sich mehr Zeit für nehmen sollen ist ein schönes Städtchen. Wunderbar nat...

Last night was a complete mission and today we were exhausted. The bus that we flagged down after leaving Alausi was completely full but the driver pulled a groin muscle to get our packs in under the bus and gave us the co-pilot´s chair and a little bench to sit on in the driver´s cabin. Rock star seating. Cool. Then ten minutes drive up the Panamericana highway the bus comes to a halt during an uphill climb on a dark hill. We heard the words ¨Bomba¨which we translated as the motor has blown ...

Arrived in Cuenca amused to see a sign outside the bus station not permitting any goats into the station, silly them, of course goats aren´t allowed, although cows, sheep and chicken apparently are as there was no sign banning them! Arrived in the evening and found a trendy little hostel called El Cafecito. That evening we didn´t venture far, only 2 steps into the funky restaurant of our hostel. Getting very frustrated with our lack of Spanish I was thinking about doing a Spainish course in t...

In Cuenca hebben we een heel tof hotel, El Cafecito. Een soort vierkantshoeve midden in de stad met de receptie en bar in het overdekte binnenpleintje. De volgende ochtend vertrekken we voor een stevige wandeling met busje en gids naar het natuurpark Cajas. Amai, hebben wij dat even onderschat. Jeroen stapt nog maar uit het busje of slaat zijn voet om en valt bijna flauw door de hoogte. Christine ruikt avontuur en zakt plots weg in een schacht zodat enkel haar kopke nog uit de grond steekt. N...

My last day in Banños was relaxing and also full of exercise. After spending a lot of time on the internet in the morning I came back to the hostel and Verena was ready to go on a hike. We decided to walk up to the virgin statue that overlooks Baños. Little did we realize that is was going to be about 700 steps to get there! It was tough, but will be good practice for Machu Picchu. It was cool to see Baños from above.

During our climb we walked past a cemetary. They are interesting her...

After the Galapagos, I headed to Cuenca with Iain and Joe from the boat. Cuenca is an old colonial town with the old cobbled streets and nice buildings. We stayed in a hostel called el Cafecito which is more of a bar with accommodation than a regular hostel. It´s a bit of a local hang-out in the evenings so it had a good atmosphere. Iain and Joe had a couple of friends from Cuenca, Pachi and Ani Lu, who said they´d give them a tour of the city and surrounding area so I made like a gooseberry ...

As the guide book states, ¨Cuenca is a beautiful colonial city -- white stone buildings with red terracotta rooves¨ really quite beautiful. Our hostel was great. The courtyard was a cafe with hallways and rooms off of it. It was a great atmosphere for a great price. 12 dollars for the both of us... private room, shared bath. The town and hostel had a very relaxed atmosphere, made it very difficult for us to go do much of anything. One of the days there, we took a bus a few hrs. north to Ingap...