Cuenca

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During Puerto Lopez I decided to tag along with a friend from the Galapagos tour who was doing some heavy duty travelling around South Ecuador ( thanks Claire for the trip and your excellent spanish speaking skills mine were very poor but you´ll be pleased to know are getting better now!!!!). Cuenca was next on the list. From the Puerto Lopez hostal we got the the strangest moto taxi I´ve ever seen then a bus to Guayaquil and then hopped in a taxi to the airport for a 30 minute flight in a tiny propelllor plan (8-9 hours in a bus here is too much!!!). It was the most diverse travel day so far......

Cuenca is beautiful colonial city and from the view of the plane you can tell its an affluent city. The city centre is a short taxi ride from the airport and I stayed at the Chordeleg Hostal which has a lovely glass covered courtyard, nice fountain and pleasant rooms with cable TV.

With only 2 days in Cuenca we squeezed a lot in including the Mueso del Central which was really good, Museo de Artes Populares, Museo de Las Culturas Aborigenes, Parque Calderon, Flower Market and a night out at the fabulous Cafe Eucalypyus which had a live band, good tapas and even better cocktails. Also recommended is Cafe Austria which has excellent cakes and a Banana split almost as good as the one in Thailand!!!

Next stop was Alausi and Riobamba for the Devils nose train ride......

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