Blogs from Cuenca, South, Ecuador, South America - page 39

our last big stop in ecuador was in cuenca, the third largest city in the country. its a nice, colonial city but there wasnt much to do. we walked around, checked out the various markets (food and crafts), and went to the ice cream parlor a few times. we ended up spending more time here than we anticipated, because it took us longer to organize gear for our trek and sarah got sick (no, not of brett...just sick). once we were in cuenca, we decided that we wanted to go backpacking in nearby parque nacional cajas. which meant spending all of our first day there prepping to head into the backcountry. this included the grocery store (which was more of a glorified mini-mart), the cental market (for fruit and veggies), figuring out how to get to ... read more

Greetings from the mitad del mundo aka the equator! After leaving the coast, we headed into the Colombian interior to Bogota. After a freezing cold (the bus drivers like to put the air con on full blast) 18 hour trip, we arrived in the Colombian capital. We spent a couple of days enjoying the side walk cafes, markets, and bustling atmosphere of the city as well as the cooler weather (the city is over 2000m in elevation and stays a nice 60-70 degrees- 15-20 C). We also took an excursion to a Salt Cathedral, which lies just outside of Bogota. The cathedral was opened in 1995 in the side of an active salt mine, apparently the biggest salt mountain in the world. On the last leg of our tour, our group bumped into a school group ... read more

2 straight days of travelling has brought us to Cuenca, Ecuador. We arrived late in Quito and woke up at 6 in the morning to start a 10 hour bus ride. They don´t give you much time, or really any time, to get off the bus to stretch, use the wash room, or grad a bite to eat. But we are here and the scenary was amazing. Not for those who are scared of heights. C and J... read more

Today, August 10th is a national holiday - Independence Day. We were picked up at 8 a.m by a new guide for a morning tour of the Cajas Park, a wild area about 30 Km West of Cuenca. On the way out, we saw huge pigs which had been slit then flattened being turned on spit roasts at roadside cafes for the holiday day trippers. The Cajas is a wild area, rather reminiscent of Wales or Scotland, but of course, much higher - between 3500 -4200 metres. It is often cloudy or raining so we were lucky to have a glorious sunny day. We made 3 stops, the first after ascending many hairpins to arrive at the Continental Divide at 4,200 metres. We only climbed a little way, but it left us breathless, and the wind ... read more

Travel Blog's server crashed this weekend--pretty much all the blog entries during the time I was posting were lost. Luckily, I have managed to recover most of them and Anitza (bless her!) has the other two saved for the scrapbooking project she's been making me. I will probably restore the text of the other entries at some point, but I’m not feeling rushed as you’ve all already seen them. And on the now related note, go here: http://flickr.com/photos/anitza/sets/72157600890951822/ and check out how awesome Anitza is! She has made me the most beautiful digital scrapbook pages for Inca Trail Trek. They are really spectacular! Now on to Cuenca--This entry is me complaining. You have been warned. All of you that know me know that my love for Ecuador runs very deep, but it is also complicated. There ... read more