Hotel Espana Cuenca

... we had arrived during shoulder season and it was pretty quiet, so we had no trouble getting a room at a gorgeous guesthouse called Mama Hilda´s. They were able to recommend a short hike for us to do, which involved climbing up the hill behind the hostal and following the trail up behind the town. Confusingly there were trails everywhere and we got a little confused as to whether they led to peoples´ houses or not. In the end we were sure we had come the right way and could look ...

We rose around 8am, there was no hurry and not much to do apart from wait for the train from Riobambe which should arrive around 11-30am. I needed to exchange the receipt we had from Banos for the real tickets. I did that while Christie and the children rustled up breakfast at a nearby restaurant for $8. Afterwards we rang one of our daughters in England and explored around the station, along with many other tourists waiting for the train. We bumped into our dutch friends we had met ...

... rest of the Americas and Europe. For some products, like the hat, the name of their point of international sale rather than their place of domestic origin stuck. The hat also was shipped up to Panama for those people working on the Panama Canal construction and when the hat was displayed at a world trade show in the UK under the name "Panama hat" there was no going back. Now on all the hats you see the producers clearly ...

... new one, as the boat sinking incident in the Amazon has taken it´s toll on the first camera. With that done the visit the Cathedral on the main plaza, it´s it huge and by far the most impressive we´ve seen to date.<br><br>Heading out of Ecuador tomorrow, which is a little sad as we both really liked the country and it´s people.<br><br>Blog you later<br><br>Mark and Kate

... I read about it in the Lonely Planet. The dinner was really great but it was the chocolate cake and apple pie that did it (no where near as good as your´s mom).<br><br>Canoa (coast) (Aug 17-Aug 20): <br>We took another 2 buses to get from Puerto Lopez to Canoa. We were under the impression that both would only take a couple of hours a piece at the most. We ended up traveling from 9 am until 3:30 in the afternoon. By the time we got there we were tired, hot and irritated and had to ...

... road repairs going on and detours.<br>At one of the halts for road works two Ecuadorians roll up behind us in Royal Mail jackets, we could not get to the bottom of how they got them but it raised a bit of a laugh!<br>We stop at Riobamba for lunch in a local cafe, juice, soup, and a meat and rice main course $1.5 USD.<br>When we move off again we come to an unmarked T juction toss the coin and get it wrong, we waste an hour and a half ...

... more obviously affluent than Quito and much more relaxing a place to stroll around in. It helps that we are in the historical centre directly from our hotel. Full of interesting colonial type buildings and churches. It's on a grid pattern, so very easy to find your way around<br><br>Following day picked up after breakfast for what turned out to be a really memorable day visiting a ...

... to have cranked up to the max all ****ing night. Thank God for earplugs. <br><br>The room did have cable TV which was pretty cool (I managed to watch 6 months worth in 10 days) and I discovered something rather interesting. South America (and Spain, I am reliably informed) dub everything. Everything. Music, films, documentaries (I was entranced by an episode of Born Survivor with Bear Grylls that I had seen in English back at home - surreal. He ...

Since we fecked up our last hike so badly, decided it was time to get back on the horse and try again.<br><br>So thats how we ended up in Cuenca so that we could visit the Cajas national park...there is a never endind discussion over here over which city is nicer.. Cuenca or ...

... it was for people who can´t hike. The views weren´t great and we couldn´t sit on the roof. For once Ecuadorian health and safety seemed to have kicked in, glad it was at the one time we were happy to risk it! GRRRRRR!<br><br>On the train we met a Dutch guy called Pepjin, who was really cool. He headed on to Cuenca with us (a four hour bus ride!) and shared a room with us last night. After finding the hostel we headed out for some food and a beer ...