Riobamba and Cuenca

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We decided to go to Riobamba so that we could do the famous train ride Nariz del Diablo. Having spent an hour looking for a hostel in Riobamba we were then informed that the train no longer leaves from Riobamba - you have to take a 2 hour bus ride to Alausi and pick up a train there. The price has also doubled from $US11pp to $US20pp for half the journey time! Needless to say we decided against the train which was annoying as we could have just taken a bus directly from Banos to Cuenca. Riobamba isn't great - the hostels are grotty and there's not much to see although there are some attractive buildings. We were quite relieved to catch the 7.30am bus to Cuenca the next morning. Fortunately there was a bread store open opposite the bus station so we grabbed coffee & croissants before getting on our 6 hour bus trip. The scenery was stunning and we were wishing we'd had a couple of days in Alausi as it looked so nice. We finally arrived in Cuenca at 1.30pm and took a taxi directly to hostal Posada del Rio. It's a really nice place with the bonus of having a kitchen for communal use so we've benn able to cook "normal" food like pasta with salad! We did go to a Chinese restaurant on our first night though which is a good way of getting veggie food. Cuenca is a lovely old town with some beautiful buildings - the new cathedral is stunning. We've been lucky with the weather as it was raining for 2 weeks before our arrival. We got up early at 6am yesterday (just for a change!) and caught the 7am bus out to Parque Nacional Cajas. We paid our $US2 each at the ranger station and were given a fancy looking map and shown a circular 5-6 hour walk. We had sun and clear blue sky but it was very cold with a cold wind. We had our usual problem of finding the start of the walk but once we got going it was beatiful. We had an initial climb but then the walk was fairly level. David decided he wanted to climb a nearby hill for even better views so we scrambled up Cerro Taquiurro. The views were amazing and we had a relaxing lunch break before making our way back down. We had a short walk along the road to another ranger station and traffic checkpoint where we picked up a Cuenca bound bus We had an early night as we were again very tired We're now undecided whether to spend another day in Cuenca or take a bus to Loja - it depends on the weather! We need to be in Piura by Tuesday to take a flight to Cuzco on Wednesday in time for the Inca Trail on Friday. I can't believe we'll be doing the Inca Trail this time next week as it seems a lifetime ago when we booked it!

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