Hostal Posada Del Angel Cuenca

... was half full - thats where it dawned on us that there was no light in the area (apart from the street of our hotel, phew!). So we ate in the candle lit restaurant, which was quite nice but very quiet and sadly the DJ that was meant to come on could not so it was another early night for us!

Cuenca's main square, Parque Abdon Calderon (not Plaza del Armas, wow!) has 2 cathedrals, a new and old. The new one being immense, with a huge ...

... dogs near the village but this one barked and growled at us for over five minutes and we couldnīt progress as it was on the trail and there was no way around it. We even had rocks in our hands, it was quite frightening as it was growling and baring its teeth and I thought it was to going to bite Nathan. Finally a man from a neighbouring house came out and it calmed down and moved away a bit. We had a short back and forth with the man before he asked us for a gift or money for scaring ...

... trip well done the list. The bus was comfortable and took us high above the clouds through wondrous villages standing lonely amongst the enormous giants of the Andes. At one point we passed through a village, which I think was called San Antonio, which was high up in a valley surrounded by lush greener than green fields. Huge mountains ascended all sides and in the distance, below the altitude of the town, was a gap between the mountains where a carpet of white cloud was trying ...

... up close. We clambered back onto the boat pleased with our encounter and we headed for a nearby beach to warm up in the sun, and where our guide made us lunch. We stayed on the beach for about 30minutes before we headed back to port.

We returned about 2pm and decided to visit the "Centro de Interpretacion", which contained a very well organised presentation of the history of the islands, current problems and development. It was extremely ...

8/18/09 or 18/08/09 as they do here!


Oh Dear! Where does the time go?

I think I left you prior to a trip to Cuenca.

We grabbed a taxi to Loja and a bus trip to Cuenca. Fairly uneventful as Bruce had a bum knee. The churches are magnificent. There is a wonderful local market where the indigenous people sell their wares. I bought a few alpaca blankets (super warm, by the way!)…We cruised some of the town, noticing old bridges ending ...

We went in search of breakfast at 10.15am, unaware that they stop serving breakfast at 9.30am. After some pleading and a bit of a telling-off by the mother however, they made an exception. Bread, jam coffee, juice. After this we went off to explore the town.

Cuenca is quite possibly the most aesthetically-delightful city I've ever had the pleasure to visit. Nearly every minute is a lovely sight prompting you to reach for your camera. Walking north/south, streets ...

... wheezing since Iquitos. Maybe they recognized the difference between the sound of asthma and the sound of swine flu. Either that or they were too kind hearted to send us away. Either way, we'll take it!

Our first stop was the very scenic and friendly town of Loja. Here we rested our weary bones for a few days, got reacclimatized to the altitude, and explored the town and local parks. We heard our first antpitta and spent ages trying to call it out ...

... it. Post lunch I exercised w*tching *forementioned ment*lists pl*ying *ll m*nner of be*ch *ctivities, wrecked I retired to the h*mmock to w*tch the sunset. Th*t night we h*d * ste*k bbq on the be*ch, pure lush. While the bbq w*s being prep*red "the others" *rrived in the form of 2 other tour groups, which me*nt I got kicked out of my room *nd h*d to sleep in the one rem*ining h*mmock. If you c*n im*gine sleeping in *n oversized h*mmock with * m ...