Hostal Macondo Cuenca

Our travels have led us to the attractive city of Cuenca. It was pleasant enough, the centre filled with Spanish colonial architecture.

It must be said that Catherine found the shower in the hotel the most exciting element of our stay – it was hot, had a light and not a spider in sight J

We visited a couple of local sites including our first Inca remain (Ingapirca) and an attractive National park called Parque Cajas. Whilst there we saw our first llamas, which were swi...

Like three lost children we wandered. Thom the Dutchman and I, laden with bags of groceries and Margaret, Thom´s wife, sauntering behind empty-handed with a vacant smile. We had taken a cab to a grocery store in suburban Cuenca, but had neglected to make note of where we were staying. Ellen knew; she was our navigator, but she had stayed back at the hostel to rest. "Couldn't she have pinned the address on my shirt?" I thought. We knew the name of our small hostel, but that wasn't good enough....

Cuenca is a nice little colonial town... We spent a couple of nights there, and managed to find the coolest live band on the Friday evening...

We had a very early start (3.30am) so we could pack our things and make our way to the airport for our flight to Cuenca. The flight was excellent - beautiful views of Cotopaxi which we didn't have the previous day. On our 40 minute flight, we were served juice and a sandwich... much better than Air New Zealand! We arrived in Cuenca and took a taxi to our hostel. On first appearances Cuenca seemed more European than Quito. It's Ecuador{s third largest city by the way. Thankfully we were allowe...

After being collected for our tour by Juan, we set off to pick-up the other passengers for our tour of the Cajas National Park. Our contingent was made up of Dutch and Belgian travelers. We had a short, scenic drive to the National Park where we started our first walk (3 hours). The Park was incredible. It was moor-like with over 230 lakes. We saw 4 distinctive types of landscape - all very different in such a small area. Our favourite was the "Quinoa" (?) forest. This place was like somethin...

Stayed 2 nights in the excellent Macondo - great room, nice outside spaces, clean kitchen and breakfast included. Ceunca itself was nice enough but 1 day was enough to walk around town and see the sights. Local restaurants were expensive or uninspiring and the nearby supermarket was poorly stocked.

Arrived in Cuenca at about 8 last night after a 5 hour bus ride from Guayaquil. Guayaquil was very hot and not particularly exciting. Checked in to the Hostal recommended by all the guidebooks and it is actually very nice, tranquil and friendly.

Spent the morning pottering around Cuenca getting various overdue tasks done - haircut, laundry, burning photos to a dvd plus having a look at the city. It is the third largest city in Ecuador factfans, and in contrast with Guayaquil is rather...

Having successfully found the bus station in Machala and booked tickets for the mid morning departure to Cuenca, we sat back and relaxed for the 4 hour journey. By recent standards this was a local hop for us, and to be fair it was a simple journey albeit driven by a young guy who seemed to think he was in a 4x4 rather than a 50 seater bus as he threw it around corners and straight through huge holes in the road. We were both taken with the impressive houses as we neared Cuenca, GB explaining...

I´m now in Cuenca, a city in the Andean valley (not quite as high as Quito), between the two ranges that make up the Andes, in the south of Ecuador. My Lonely Planet guide raises the question as to whether Cuenca or Quito is the most beautiful city. To me, there is no contest, and how anyone could think there was is baffling. Cuenca wins hands down. Like Quito, Cuenca has a central historic district surrounded by more modern development, but unlike the capital, Cuenca is CLEAN. There is almos...