Ecuador

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We took a bus from Mancora in Peru to Cuenca which turned out to be a lot longer than we were told. The bus was over an hour late which meant that we were late crossing the border into Ecuador and missed the connecting bus. The border crossing turned into a bit of a farce. We got stamped out of Peru no problem and then got taken by bus over the border into Ecuador where we were to change to connect with a bus going to Cuenca. Before being literally kicked off the bus with our bags dumped at our feet we both realised that although we were now in Ecuador, we hadn't gone through immigration and so had not been stamped into the country. This was also noted by the woman at the bus stop who told us that we would have to get a taxi back to the border, get stamped in and then go back to the bus stop for our bus. So, we took a taxi back to the border which was quite a bit out of town to get our stamps. Never have we been able to just walk into a country without going through immigration. Eventually we got on our bus to Cuenca. The bus journey was interesting. Before boarding this woman loaded 5 40kg sacks of garlic onto the bus. Further up the road we stopped and some men loaded about 20 sacks of what we think were coconuts into the seating area of the bus taking up several rows of the bus. As this was happening the woman with the garlic and the bus driver handed some cash to the guards checking the buses. Clearly some bribery going on. Further up the road again the bus was stopped by more guards who were Antinarcotic officers. They came on the bus and from started having a go at the guys with the sacks. From our basic Spanish we understood that you are not supposed to carry cargo on tourist buses. While this was going on the garlic woman went bright red and quickly got off the bus. If you were smuggling drugs I would say a sack of garlic would be the way to do it. Would a dog smell it over the garlic?? Eventually we got on our way but not before the woman handed the conductor on the bus some cash presumably for allowing her to carry whatever she was carrying. All very suspect!

We arrived in Cuenca at midnight to find that we had arrived smack in the middle of a holiday. It was the Saturday night before Halloween so everyone was out celebrating. We also discovered that the Monday was a holiday, the Tuesday was Day of the Dead, a Mexican festival they celebrate here, and the Wednesday was a holiday in Cuenca. Needless to say every man and his granny was in town and we could not get a room anywhere. Anywhere cheap that is as we finally managed to get a room in a hotel for $50!!! We say room but really it was a cupboard and a very small one at that. It was just a single room with another matress on the floor which blocked the door so you couldn't even open the door properly to get in. Not worth half our daily budget. We didn't really have much choice at 1am so we reluctantly said yes to the man and went to bed.

The next morning we got up with the intention of heading out of Cuenca as we couldn't afford another night in the hotel. However, when we went to find our bus times the nice man at the tourist information managed to get us a room for slightly cheaper so we decided to stay for another night and see what the celebrations in the city were like. We spent the day looking round the churches and museums including a Panama hat museum and factory. very interesting and of course involved us trying on all types of Panama hat. That evening we spent time round the main square where local bands were playing and people dressed in traditional dress were dancing. Near the end of the evening they started setting fireworks off in the square. All very nice if they hadn't been 3 ft from the crowd. Having avoided injury we headed back to our hostel.

In the morning we caught a bus to the bus station and headed to Banos. About an hour outside of banos we again got dumped at the side of the road and had to flag down a local bus to Banos. This time we had to stand because as always they overfilled the bus. When we arrived we headed to our hostel in town and went out for dinner. Banos turned out to be more expensive than we had expected so we enjoyed some good Italian food and several glasses of wine.

In Banos we spent time wandering round town visiting the cathedral and the hot springs that Banos is famous for. We also sampled some taffy which they make in the town by stretching it over pegs sticking out of the wall next to the doorway. One aftrenoon we walked up to the Mirador on the top of the hill which gave us amazing views of Banos and the surrounding valley.

After 2 nights in Banos we headed to Quito for a few days. Quito has a little bit of an edgy repution for being a little dodgy with muggings popular after dark and we had met someone who had had their camera stolen. So we headed to a hostel that was half way between the old and the new town. We spent the day exploring the old town which was nice, with lots of old buildings and spectacular churches surrounding impressive squares. It was rather difficult not to be on your guard especially when the hostel itself advises you to get taxis after 5pm. Still we didn't find any trouble. The next day we headed to the new town, in the opposite direction for a night out in all the bars. we went to the main square where most of it happens and found that we could have walked into any of the main drinking areas at home with prices to match! We managed to afford a few drinks there before heading down some of the backstreets for a few cheaper ones.

From Quito we had once last stop before leaving Ecuador, Otavalo. Otavalo is famous for its Saturday market. Unfortunately timing had it so that we would arrive on a Sunday, one day late but we guessed correctly that the market stalls would all still be there and it would be much quieter too. We looked around the usual tourist stuff in the market before buying a hammock and a tablecloth (all very useful when you don't even have a house let alone a tree to hang it on but it'll come in handy some time). The next day we took a bus and then a pickup (rather chilly racing up the mountain roads) to an amazing crater lake. As usual, even though you have to pay to get into these national parks there were no signposts or maps for the walk we intended to do. After some Spanglish with the taxi driver we managed to get some directions and set off. The walk tool about 5 hours and went the entire way around the top of the lake with two large islands. The view was amazing, very green with sunlight sparkling off the surface of the deep blue lake. After finishing and struggling for a while to get another pickup back, as there were none around, we headed back to Otavalo for the night and to pack for our next country, Colombia.

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