Hotel Italia Cuenca

... the beautiful valley at the different crops growing on the rugged hillsides. We found a nice place to sit above the town and people-watch for a while which was interesting. We finally emerged a little way up the road from the main square, but discovered the trail had led us next to somebody´s sheep pen and down to a locked gate – we were obviously on private property! There was no other way to go except way back up in the hills, so we surreptitiously looked around before jumping ...

... Cotopaxi and Banos. Foolsihly didn't get their email address.<br><br>The train arrived at about 11-30am, and it was far from what I had expected and first read about twelve years ago when I first fantasized about riding this amazing rail journey. Then it was a steam train with traditional carriages and backpackers lying on the roofs of the carriages lapping up the thrill and the amazing scenery. Twelve years on, modernization and recent tragedies of people on the roof meeting ...

... Original Panama Hat made in Ecuador". Anyway, I really wanted to visit one of these factories and since Cuenca is renowned for making the hats it was a must on our agenda. Cuenca has about 5 factories in the city and we headed off to find one, unfortunately as it was a Sunday the factories were all closed and we had to hold off till the next day. We spent the rest of the day walking in the old city, it was rather ...

The bus to Cuenca didn't involve drunken drivers, but did involve a puncture (for which the entire bus got off to help with) and a sweet, little old indigenous lady telling me about her bad feet and offering me oranges - all in the same sentence. She tried to strike up numerous other conversations but then it became quite apparent that my Spanish isn't coming on in leaps and bounds, which invoked lots of laughter from the driver who could see her trying to talk to ...

... for a place to stay. This turned out to be a lot more difficult then I thought. There were few places with any vacancies despite the fact that it was the middle of the week and low season. Zac was in charge of finding something while I guarded the bags. We ended up splurging (I think Zac was tired of looking) for "Canoa´s Wunderland". It was so nice with HOT water all the time and was only 5 feet or so from the beach. We layed low that evening and spent some time on the beach. <br ...

... Riobamba before coming back to the T juction and out on the right road we think!<br>Leaving Riobamba the road is back to single carriageway with plenty of slow traffic belching black smoke. It´s back to the hills well mountainss but at least it is a bit warmer. <br>The downside is the bike has altitude sickness and is wheasing a bit if the throttle is opened to far or too quickly.<br>We were hoping to make Cuenca tonight but it is looking ...

... of fascinating places around the Cuenca area. Our guide, Xavier, is terrific,helpful, knowledgeable and a good laugh.<br><br>Went first to a little village called San Bartolome where they had arranged with a local lady for us to visit a typical indigenous home. Then stopped off at a traditional family guitar-making business in a little place with a stunning backdrop of the mountains ...

... sounds posh in Spanish), even the news! And they always use the same voice-actor for a particular actor/personality/presenter. So, as far as South Americans are concerned, Tom Cruise is from Barcelona, and Brad Pitt heralds from Buenos Aires. Bizarre.<br><br>Anyway, back to the noise issue. I was far from impressed to discover that the hostel was then home to a 15-strong group of students on a school trip. Apparently, they were 16 years old ...

... capital Quito but we loved Cuenca... charming city full of colonial buildings, nice walk by the river and huge churches, most impressive catedral we have witnessed so far.<br><br><br><br>We were also there to celebrate Corpus Christi.. four days of celebrations with music ...

... stuffed after a ginormous pizza (not very Ecuadorian I know) we went looking for some nightlife. We found a bar where we could play some pool, before heading to a club which a random Ecuadorian guy took us to. It was AMAZING! Clubs back home should definitely be like they are here. Everyone was dancing to a thumping bass... it was like a scene from Save the Last Dance (classic film! :-s ). The light-weights that we were headed home pretty early to be ...