En route to Quito
Trip Start
Sep 13, 2004
1
10
82
Trip End
May 06, 2005
Quito,
Ecuador
Sunday, September 26, 2004
It was still a journey that was without a doubt worth doing by day for the 3 hour section of absolutely stunning, green scenery between Cuenca and Alausi. This was also the right way to do the trip: heading north the bus is mostly on the side of the road furthest from the dizzying drops.
Leaving Cuenca the usual array people boared the bus with their wares for sales: snacks, water etc as well as an amazing natural medicine made to a secret Indian recipe, that cured everything from asthma, sciatica and headaches to bed wetting
01 Mountain view 1
.In the journey across/along Andes my ears were constantly popping with the ascents and descents. The bus occasionally made it into second gear. It was a clear day again, but as we rose we turned a bend and there was a bank of cloud dead ahead through which more peaks rose. The land all up the side of the mountains was farmed (improbably, given the slopes). Many of the houses dotted around all over the place had political slogans written all over them, as is common. These are carefully painted on, not daubed. I can only speculate that the house owner migth receive some money for this, or perhaps (less likely) they're just ardent supporters. There are virtually no fences so the animals are tethered to a peg to prevent them from roaming where they shouldn't.
I hadn't managed to contact my family in Quito (I'm arriving for a week of Spanish lessons and homestay), so I took a taxi, first of all to the school as I'd managed to write down the wrong address. And when I did arrive I found that rather than being 2 hours late I was in fact a whole day behind as I'd told them I'd be there Saturday. Oops. Must consult my itinerary more frequently and no longer rely on my mind. Although I had indeed checked it on Thursday, so really very poor.
