Clar and Millah hit up Guatemalah, Ecuadah and Galapagah. Bantah.

Thursday, 20 May 2010

One long bus journey and a pretty colonial city later...

Cathedral Nuevo

We left Quito with plans to mosey up Andean Ecuador from Cuenca northwards back to Quito. However, this did mean getting to Cuenca first. A 10 hour bus journey faced us. Despite the sweltering heat, a couple of Ecuadorians felt the need to close the window. All journey. NOOOOO.

Ecuadorian buses are interesting - they stop ALL the time to pick people up. By stop, I mean slow down and keep trundling at a very slow pace (particularly for the people selling food and drink), which means there's a lot of potential for people to fall over. I've only seen it happen once though.

Getting the balance between drinking enough so one didn't expire and not drinking so much that one doesn't have to go to the toilet every half hour is a tricky one. I personally failed on this front, being about as dehydrated as I've ever been (despite the 5 bottles of water consumed en route) at least learning from the trip that thirst is my big weakness.

Trying to deal with toilet stops was also interesting. Latacunga came around, a reasonable sized town about 2.5 hours from Quito. The bus stopped for a bit of time and Milla asked the conductor about the bano. Fine, pointed her out towards them. Whilst Milla was in the bathroom, the driver decided he would pull away. I panicked somewhat, the bus stopped for a minute and then carried on. Milla was running towards the bus and I was desperately shouting in crap Spanish. Thankfully the bus driver did not leave her behind.

The rest of the journey was fairly uneventful. We got to watch Casino Royale in Spanish (yey for Bond films being easy to understand!) whilst the sun was setting and we were driving through the Andes at cloud level. Two very tired girls arrived in Cuenca, chose a hotel at random from the Rough Guide and made it. Thankfully, it has turned out to be rather nice (admittedly they made us change rooms last night, telling us that there'd be two boys so could we have the double bed? This turned out to be a lie...).


Cuenca times - we've mostly been chilling out. Cuenca is a much nicer town than Quito, by a long way. We have spent a day or so reading and relaxing and wandering around Cuenca getting to know the area. The Cathedral Nuevo is a very large Cathedral which is so large that it doesn't feel as ornate as a typical Catholic church. Two very unusual features - an incredibly ugly statue of Pope Jean Paul II and a statue of "Disco Jesus". We're talking metallic blue and silver robes with a halo with gold stars coming off it. BRILLIANT.


Ugly JP


Disco Jesus

We made friends with one guy, Ed, who's spending a month out here, a break from his uni course of Animal Behaviour and Welfare. Interesting chap, travelling with two friends who don't want to do the same things as him, so we suggested he join us on our trip to Ingapirca.

Ingapirca is a set of Incan ruins about 2 hours from Cuenca. Some travel agency said they could organise a tour (not including entrance fees) for $45. Ummm, no. So we got the bus ourselves (return for $5) and spent a couple of hours there. No more required. I have purchased a mini-Ocarina so I can be closer to the spirits like our guide in Pullulahua and also a shawl that I can say I got on my Gap Yah.

It struck me on the trip up how traditionally people still dress. There is classic Andean dress everywhere. I managed to sneak a few pics from the bus, since it's taking a while to upload, I think I'll not bother putting those ones up yet.

Splash jacket goes to the Inca ruins

Milla models in a very strong Incan door frame

I'll crop this later. It's in the Sun Temple at the top of Ingapirca



Meals have been slightly more expensive than I initially thought, but the cheapest one (a Columbian cafe) was SOOOO good. On a wheat-intolerance note, a lot of the South American places do use corn. I had a corn pancake in the Columbian place and the Mexican place we went to specifically says "corn tortilla" or "wheat tortilla". Bloody marvellous.

DO NOT (if you're ever in Cuenca) go to Cafe Eucalyptus. The food was nice if a bit expensive. The atmosphere was also pretty good. However, the service left A LOT to be desired. They took a long time taking our order, fine. However, my meal arrived first (and it was Ceviche, so cold) in two parts. The ceviche arrived with some popcorn, then the rice came 15 minutes later, along with the other 2 meals. One meal was fine. However, Milla had asked, in Spanish, for her Pad Thai to not have shrimp in it. It had shrimp. It then took a further 20 minutes for her new meal to arrive, putting time at at least 50 minutes since her initial order. We did not pay service and Milla did not pay for her meal. Absolutely atrocious. Not what's expected given it's double recommendation in the Rough Guide (and, I hear, in numerous other travel guides). I am of a mind to email the English owner to inform him, and to inform Rough Guide as well.


Nevertheless, Cuenca itself is a very nice city, which is why we've spent almost a week here! Next stop - Banos.

1 comment:

  1. Sounds awesome!!! Keep up the good updating work. Love the photos. Xxxc

    ReplyDelete