Hotel Atenas Cuenca

... We´ve discovered that the great thing about buses is that when they stop in a major town, heaps of vendors get on selling drinks, chips, local lollies, fruit and all sorts of weird and wonderful snacks.<br><br>A heap of schoolkids got on at Sigchos and we got a new lot of stares, as, once again, we were the only gringos on the bus. It was less than an hour after that we arrived in Chugchilan &#8211; just a village but popular enough to fill three hostals (basic motels), in peak season ...

... market just two blocks from our hotel, and also the market in the Plaza de San Francisco which was right next to our hotel.<br><br>After refreshing at our hotel we went back to the Pakistani Restaurant, and sampled some delicious kebabs before heading back to our hotel, through some eerie dark streets. We kept to the more popular busy streets to avoid becoming obvious targets. The plaza outside of hotel didn&#8217;t look that inviting in the dark, but I still like Cuenca, a lot.

... this was slightly strange checking out Panama hats in Ecuador but after a little bit of investigation it all made sense. The Panama hat actually started in Ecuador and they make them in the villages around Ecuador out of a local plant. Ecuador was fairly unlucky as like many other 19th and early 20th century South American goods, the hats were shipped first to Panama before sailing for their destinations in Asia ...

... br><br>We arrive in Cuenca after dark so all we can do is check into the hostel, which is really nice, the best so far, although it is a little out off the centre of Cuenca.<br><br>Cuenca is a pretty and historic town with lots of little Plazas and Churches, great for sitting and watching the world go by... however first thing we need to do is find a camera shop to buy ...

... water was somewhat warm and I attempted to use those goggles that cover your nose in order to see some wildlife. Unfortunately, due to my inability to use them properly (I kept trying to breath into them and was doing weird things) I was only able to see a couple different types of fish. What I did see was very pretty though. On the ride back we saw some more whales at the surface but no breaches. <br>All 3 nights that we were in Puerto Lopez we went to this restaurant called The Whale ...

... changing landscape, it appears that the rain concentrates in certain valleys and not others. The wet valleys have the patchwork quilt of green fields and the drier ones are parched or even dessert like.<br>We follow the Pan Am (the Pan American or Trans Americana highway which runs down the west coast from Alaska to Cape Horn), it is dual carriageway at this stage which makes for easier riding in the conditions, though there are ...

Early flight to Cuenca.Takes hours by road, only half an hour by plane. Interesting flight with great views of the Andes. Met at the airport and taken to hotel. Hotel Carvallo on Gran Colombia, right in the heart of historical Cuenca, round the corner from the main square . Still feeling the effects of Quito and altitude so caught up on lost sleep before looking round the town. Very impressive ...

... a self-taught hombre, I´m not actually that bad. I need a lot more practice, but doing OK.<br><br>Right, that´s the lessons out of the way (not all that interesting). The hostel. Probably one of the better options (I should know, I schlepped around pretty much all of those within my price range) but not exactly nice. The main issue was that my bedroom was right behind the reception; the reception that had a TV which the night attendent person ...

... the stairs to the room and discussed whether he was actually leading us to be mugged by his big brothers. The next place was just as bad, but at this point we just wanted to be off the streets. We ended up grabbing two croisants each for tea and going back to the room where we baracaded ourselves in by putting a chair in front of the door. Mental!<br><br>Yesterday morning we went to get the train, for which we got tickets easily. It was rubbish ...

Having left the camping behind in Peru we headed on through our last group border crossing into Ecuador. We mostly spent this time having goodbye parties and nursing our hangovers from the last camp meal we'd given the group in Punta Sal, Peru. How apt that Jo and I should cook the last camp meal...and delicious it was too!