San Andres Cuenca

... came back ****** as newts! Hilarious how they come in smelling like a 6foot cocktail, swaying slightly. Then sit on the each of the bed stroking your hair and saying how they are worried about you so came home early. Now without the hiccup in the middle and the knowledge that this is kick out time, this may manage to sound sincere- however you and me both know- bo****ks!

Anyway enough about that! Well with the help of 3 lines of antiemetics and some ...

... the Galapagos Islands (and we are poor) we opted for this instead. We took about a 2 hour boat ride, which I was slightly nervous about. I realized in the recent past that I have a slight fear of boats for some reason. However, the ride was relatively smooth and I suffered very little anxiety even though we were in the front of the boat :) We saw 2 whales breach on the way! It was so amazing. We were not fast enough with the camera but it was really beautiful...they were completely out ...

... br>



So--that's about the state of the McAlevy's to date. Mercury goes retrograde for a few weeks, so be thorough with your communications-don't buy a computer or a car unless you've already scoped out the model and such...be patient and be good to one another.
Stop and smell the roses, or the freshly mowed grass, or that coffee brewing. They are the little things that remind us we are human.

Hasta Luego, until later
Jenice

... my back. I thought it was a strange point to start talking about the bill but I’m always ready for the ‘dinero conversation’ so I didn’t take it personally. Then Jacque figured he wanted me to count while he listened so I started ‘One, two, three...’ but he stopped me and repeated ‘Treinta y tres’, so I started counting (slowly) in Spanish but then he stopped me again and we finally realized he just wanted me to say ...

... to Cuenca among a whole line of desks, the proprietors of which announced their services like market traders, shouting out a bewildering array of destinations and prices. We intended to go and do a quick bit of sightseeing in the town (i.e. hassle some iguanas in the park and have a look at the waterfront) but the only option was leaving our bags with the bus company, which we weren't overly keen on. So we booked tickets for an hour later, kept our bags ...

... 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.

The following day, we headed off to Caņar 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 ...

... from Secret Garden, had another beer and went to bed.

Shane says

Milli’s birthday today, but seeing most things in Cuenca are closed on a Sunday, we celebrated last night just in case, and besides with Australia being 15 hours ahead, it was her birthday by then anyway.

The last week in Quito was fairly low key, just working, getting peoples contact details and a last minute pack before we flew to Cuenca yesterday.

Our last day at ...

... called Ingapirca. Its highlight is the Incan ruin that lies a short distance above. I stayed for a couple days and explored the site, which has what is believed to be a solar observatory as its main feature. But for me the real highlight was the pair of llamas that are tied down with fairly long leashes on the premises. At first I thought they were free roaming llamas that chose these ruins as their home... but it took me but a few moments to realize ...

... to sell whatever it is. Because of the busses. There seems to be a lot of air pollution. A lot of diesel in the air which my sinuses did not enjoy. But this form of transport is cheap so a lot of the locals use it so the bus is forever stopping to pick up/drop off people. Luckily they donīt fully stop so itīs quite amusing seeing people run for the bus. Roads seem to be made of concrete. Not sure the reason behind this, but certainly different.

... Colombian and Peruvian ones were amazing. We felt very cultural and pleased with ourselves. Jill was particularly pleased to learn that she likes art galleries because she hates museums but feels that she needs to be slightly cultural. A guy came up to us in the bus station saying he had a hostal...we were very cautious obviously but ...