Blogs from Cuenca, South, Ecuador, South America

Greetings from Baños de Agua Santa, Tungurahua, Ecuador! As things are starting to open up, I've been getting out a bit more and seeing a few friends. I've continued to attend yoga classes faithfully three mornings a week. It has been SO important for me to have this time JUST for me. My body feels strong, my spine, hips and shoulders are virtually pain-free. The deep, rythmic breathing is an exercise that I carry into all aspects of daily life. My instructor was supposed to move back to Perú, but for me it's been a silver lining that Peruvian borders have remained closed. SO - she ended up staying in Ecuador two months longer than planned, for which I have benefitted greatly. Now it's definite - Adriana is leaving in two weeks and I am gearing ... read more

Our final stop in Ecuador. We were joined by fellow travellers and friends Marg and Ted for a week in the very charming small city of Cuenca. It was a pleasant change from the hustle of Quito. We walked everywhere we wanted to go and now seem to be acclimatized to the altitude. Cuenca has lots of ex-pats. 10 000 former US residents and plenty of Canadians. Those we met seem very happy here with the slow pace of life, very affordable cost of living and the mild year-round climate. Next stop, Lima Peru.... read more

Nach unserer Zugfahrt, haben Sanne, Soya und ich Alausi um halb 12 verlassen und sind gegen 16h in Cuenca angekommen. Dort haben wir uns dann von Soya verabschieded und wir waren beide nicht darauf versessen sie wiederzusehen. Sie war ziemlich nervig die letzte Nacht und morgens im Schlafsaal weil sie sehr viel lärm machte und jeden aufweckte und, ganz ehrlich, sie war ziemlich komisch. Unser Hostel, das Bauhouse Hostel, war ok aber nicht das beste. Die Türen, Betten und Böden machten jede Menge krach, das Frühstück war nicht gut und viel zu teuer, es gab keine Steckdosen für die oberen Betten und das Hostel war sehr kalt (nicht nur die Temperatur sondern auch die Atmosphäre). Das Personal war super nett, aber die wussten nicht viel über die Stadt und die Aktivitäten in der Umgebung. Unser erster ... read more

We arrived in Quito at about 10pm and then got on a Cuenca bound night bus to the village of Alausi, where we were going to ride the Devil’s Nose train journey the next day. We took the latest bus possible, but still arrived at Alausi at the awkward time of 4:30 am. Thankful for alarms and GPSs, we were able to get some sleep on the bus while also being aware when to tell the driver to let us off. We were also thankful that a taxi was waiting where the bus stopped on the side of the highway to take us down into town. The train station doesn’t open until 7:30 so we had a chilly little sleep in the plaza until the town woke up. There aren’t a lot of places we would ... read more

David here... We left Latacunga in high spirits. However about 10 minutes into the journey Suzanne spotted a family standing by a horse lying in a pool of blood by the side of the road, obviously hit and killed by a vehicle. The woman was still holding the reins and they were all looking down in shock and disbelief. This was really upsetting and it took us a while to shake off the feeling of sadness for the family and the horse. We arrived into Ambato after an hour and bought tickets to Cuenca on the 12:00 bus, getting seats together, which is why we wanted to take this route over trying to stop a bus on the highway. The tickets cost $9 each. We had a 2 hour wait so got coffee. Suzanne asked for ... read more