Day 13: Banos to Cuenca 3: We decided to take the 8:45 bus to Riobamba with a connection there to Cuenca, so we were up fairly early, ate breakfast, and headed to the bus terminal. I'd forgotten and Manoli didn't realize that the trip to Cuenca was so long... about 8 hours! The trip started sort of the way it ended... delays and bad luck. First of all, the bus left over half an hour late. We arrived in Riobamba, and instead of the "terminal" that the lady in Banos had told us we'd be arriving at, we were dropped off on the side of the road, in front of a little office. Our next bus direct to Cuenca was supposed to arrive at 11am, about 15 minutes after we were dropped off. This bus arrived ... read more

Day 11: Banos Day 2: We woke up this morning hoping to go mountain biking down the Waterfall Route, but it was raining some from the time we woke up. It wasn't even 7am yet, so we took a walk up towards our nearby waterfall where the famous thermal springs are located. Unbelievably, the main thermal springs near the waterfall were packed with people in their bathing suits, in the cold and rain! Granted, we knew the thermal springs were hot, but it was 7am and it was raining. Since breakfast wasn't included in this hostal, we then went to one of the internet-recommended places, Rico Pan. Manoli ordered fruit & yogurt and I had scrambled eggs, and we both ordered capuccinos. Everything was good and pretty inexpensive. When we returned to the hostal, we gathered ... read more

Day 9: Chugchilan to Saquisili/Latacunga: Well, we managed to wake up at 2:15am, gather our stuff and head to the bus "station" (actually, no station, just where the busses park overnight) for the supposedly 3am bus to Saquisili. Arriving at like 2:40, we waited and we waited, but nobody showed up until 3:15, and they were locals arriving for the 3:30am bus! Oh well, live and learn. Soon after 3:30, the driver showed up and we all got on board. The first part of the trip was very slow, since the roads were bad and it was still totally dark, not to mention the 15 or so times we stopped to pick someone up. Actually, I lost count of the stops about 30 minutes into the 3 hour trip. The road got a bit better and ... read more

Day 7: Chugchilan Day 2: Well, by noon we finally have fairly dependable internet access. We slept nice and cozy last night, waking up around 6am or so. At 7am we ate our first breakfast at Mama Hildas. Either a lot of folks left earlier or came to breakfast later as we only saw 8 or 10 others at breakfast. They served fresh fruit, toast with jam, yogurt, and coffee/tea. It was all good and homemade/fresh, but we missed the more filling eggs or cereal we often get. We both took a nice hot shower, then left about 8am for our first hike from Chugchilan. One of the hostal family gave us a pretty decent map of the area and we'd decided to check out the Cheese Factory (Queseria), Italian Monastery, and/or Canyon overlook. There was ... read more

Sorry for the delay. We just got internet here in Chugchilan. Day 5: Quilotoa: The morning for our departure to the Quilotoa Loop started with a bit of a shock. When I checked on the time the bus to Quilotoa was to leave, the hostal folks told me that on Sunday the only bus leaves at 9am, not 11:30am! Since it was already after 7am, we rushed packing our backpacks, skipped breakfast, stowed our main luggage and headed for the bus terminal. We got our next surprise when we found out that supposedly there was NO bus to Quilitoa that day (although I'm pretty sure I saw when arrive after we'd been there a while) and we'd have to take the bus to Quivedo which would drop us at Zumbahua. The bus was getting ready to ... read more