Hotel Oro Verde Cuenca

The day after we returned from the Galapagos, we headed for Cotopaxi, at an elevation of 4000 metres! Not the best planning for altitude adjustment, but we´d left ourselves flexible for the week and had heard great things through the hostel in Quito, which has a sister hostel in Cotopaxi also run by the Australian-Ecuadorian couple. We went with a vanload of others from the hostel in Quito so had a big long chat during the two-hour drive about everybody´s travels. After driving through a ...

Today was meant to be an easier day after our travelling yesterday, and so it was. Breakfast was the standard scrambled eggs, toast, jam and coffee or chocolate although we managed to persuade the cook to do soft boiled eggs which were a welcome change. The breakfast area was on the top floor with a great view of the surrounding area and looking right down into the market below us. <br><br>After breakfast we decided to go on a walkabout around town. We went looking for the ...

11th October<br>After getting the flight from Galapagos to Guayaquil, I boarded a bus to Cuenca. Non event really until the last hour when the girl next to me offered me some chocolate and we started talking. I ended up teeing up dinner with her tomorrow night and getting her number. Either my spanish or my looks have improved!<br>I got to the hostel and ran into Jeff, a Melbourne kid I had met in Medellin and Quito. We headed out for ...

... shall we just extend the lease, it only costs about $15 a day but it&#8217;s still an expense we would rather not have. <br><br>As we were packing, I was able to watch some live English soccer on the cable TV, it was nice just to chill out.<br><br>For lunch I used what was left of the food in the fridge, scrambled eggs with mushrooms, tomato&#8217;s, broccoli and garlic, and some toast with jam. We decided to leave some clothes here and asked Rosa if she could store them. She explained ...

... onto the next bus to Cuenca. No time for a brief sit down to let the stomach settle then!<br><br>But the blow of the amount of time spent on these buses is certainly cushioned by the stunning views. The andes are just incredible! You can be in cloud one minute, then descend another 100 metres to emerge with the most breath taking view down a valley! Interjected with mountains, some snow capped, and rivers winding down through, occaionally being fed by ...

... it is the one with the sky blue domes). We did lots of people watching that day.<br>The following day we had a tour with the company, Kushi Waira. It was an all day guided tour of a nearby indigenous community, Tarqui. There was one other couple on the trip, Nathan and Lin, who happen to live in Berkley...small world! We drove about thirty minutes outside of Cuenca and we were greeted with breakfast and canelazo. Our tour guide was Alfonso and he took us on a hike through ...

... the pools. There are over 20 pools in all, each surrounded with flowers, foliage and lots of stonework. We hired a driver to take us there, an almost 3 hour drive from Mitad that took us through pristine mountain ranges right into the heart of corn and dairy country. After our swim we stopped at a local restaurant for a lunch of locally grown corn with locally made cheese, homemade soup and chicken and rice (that´s a pretty standard ...

... t be able to support as much weight as originally expected. And a huge poster of GI Che? Seriously, looks like GI Joe. Are we missing some movie that recently came out? It's fairly touristy of course, but definitely enjoyable.<br><br>The following day, we headed off to Cañar to visit an authentic, Ecuadorian, non-touristy market. Besides the traditional clothes that I described, they also sold American hats, t-shirts and socks. Guess we shouldn't be surprised. The food market was a ...

... Garden in time for dinner and without encountering any problems. <br><br>We had a great last night out, had some drinks with the travel agency crew at Finn McCools and then went dancing at the muchly talked about Bungalow 6 &#8211; that was a great place if it wasn&#8217;t for the soft porn on the TVs. Why topless American college girls were needed I don&#8217;t know as the place was pumping and would have been without it I think. We will definitely see some people ...

... several times. It does have its charms: well-preserved colonial architecture, housing modern stores and restaurants, cobble stone streets, and friendly residents. A tranquil river splits the older city (colonial era) from the newer city (modern commerce era). I particularly enjoyed walking along the path beside the river, a bit removed from the noisy traffic not far away. There are several nicely maintained plazas, and of course tons of churches ...