Mancora and Cuenca

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Day 68
Bus arrived in Trujillo and had to sit around for hours waiting for the connecting bus to Piura. From Piura we had another little wait and then got on the next bus to Mancora, a little beach town in northern Peru, which didn´t arrive till about 11pm. Stumbled to the hostel which was a hell hole but we were too tired to do anything about it so decided to crash out (despite the shower full of dead cockroaches).

Day 69
Left nice and early and didn´t have to pay as the owner was there and was pretty disgraced when she saw the state of the room. Found a better new place and just spent the day chilling out on the beach. Decided one day was enough as the beach wasnt that amazing and the weather not great either, so we organized a bus to Cuenca for the next day.

Day 70
Another day on a bus! Arrived in Cuenca time for a late bite to eat in the hostel, and then bombed out. Hostel (El Cafecito) ace though. Amazing food.

Day 71
Day of jobs. Organised Galapagos trip after much deliberation. Wandered round Cuenca, which is a lovely little town and ate and drank as much as we could in the yummy hostel.

Day 72
Took the bus to Alausi (about 4 hours away) where we planned to do the famous train roof ride the following day. Bus was horrible and the weather in Alausi was lousy haha so we chomped down some din dins and went to bed.

Day 73
Needed to be up early to get tickets for the train. To our horror, we arrived to find out that there was a problem on the track north of Alausi so there was a replacement train and you couldn´t ride on the roof. Devastating. Might as well have been on a bus. Returned to Cuenca disappointed, but back to Cafecito for more nice food so couldn´t really complain. Until we went to the cinema and saw ´The End of Time´ which was almost as bad as the train!

Day 74
More exploring of the town, bought some fake DVDs and Tom got an Ecuadorian haircut by a salsa dancing Columbian man lover. Watched the Spain- Russia Euro Semi Final in the avo with some popcorn. Tried to have a night out so got boozed up in the hostel and trotted out to find a salsa club but apparantly no where is open on a Thursday,despite what Columbian hairdressers say.

Day 75
Said goodbye to Cafecito and took the bus to Guayaquil which was where we were flying to Galapagos from the next day. Didn´t see much of Guayaquil (which apparantly is minging), just had our tea and went to bed excied about the big trip.

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