First Inca ruins and a bit of a disappointment!

We arrived in Cuenca, back in the mountains again, this time further south, and quickly walked round the standard sights. There were 2 cathedrals, an old and a new, the latter being so much more impressive, with big blue domes and decorative facades. Heading down to the river we past what turned out to be the flower market, which was really just a couple of flower stalls. The river was pretty with gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains. We were headed for a group of small inca ruins, but they were so small we managed to walk straight past them! It turned out to be just a wall and a small cave - nothing to write home about!

Back in town we hunted for a place to eat, but being Sunday not much was open. We had just had a glass of wine in a small Mexican restaurant and were heading to another place we had read about in the Lonely Planet, when who should we bump into but Reto and Sandro from Alausi. It really is a small world. After our food and mulled wine in an alright pizzeria, we met the guys in a shisha bar and passed the evening very pleasantly.

The next morning we were up early and on a 2 hour bus to Ingapirca, the biggest inca ruins in Ecuador. The site consisted of a templo del sol, some walls which somehow reflected the sun as well, a reconstructed hut, and most importantly 8 or so llamas strutting around. It was really quite good and the museum wasn´t all bad either, but we agreed that we have been spoilt by all the huge Mayan sites in Mexico and Guatemala. We had assumed it would take us all day to look round but we were done in time to get the 1.00 bus back to Cuenca.

After a delicious hot tuna and veg salad in the hostel, we went to look at a small art gallery (Museo de Artes Populares), which housed some interesting musical instruments, traditional costumes and other artifacts, before heading to Wunderbar - a german-run pub with good cocktails and playing cards. We then had some more food at a place called cacao and canela, where we tried the Ecuadorian speciality of hot chocolate with cheese in it. It was quite nice, but really just tasted or chocolate and cheese, nothing amazing!

Finally today, we packed up and armed with a chocolate brownie headed for Loja, our final stopover before Peru. When we arrived though, it became obvious there wasn´t really much point sticking around for a night even, so we are booked onto a night bus to Piura in Peru, leaving at midnight tonight!

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