Cuenca

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How to get there:

I caught a 9am bus from Banos to Cuenca for $12 - I had to change in Riobamba but the conductor told you to get off & ushered you to the other bus with your packs. We had 1 stop for bus drivers to get food (& a bathroom break) & the trip took 8hrs.

I met a girl called Jin from near Shanghai on the bus so we decided to find a hostel together.

We caught a local bus into the city for 25c - exact change is needed.



Where I stayed: La Casa Cuencana $8/night for dorm with bathroom had the dorm just for 2 of us. Clean, wifi good & water warm. Kitchen is ok but not that well supplied.



What I did:
Day 1: I wasn't feeling to good (mild food poisoning I think) so we headed out for a walk around the city to see the old buildings & an market near the one square.

After a lunch time rest we took a stroll along the river & back just to check out the city from another view, & as it was Sunday the town is pretty much closed so not a lot to do!



Day 2: We were going to head to Cajas today but we over slept & missed our chance so we walked the other part of Cuenca which we had missed the day before. Went inside the cathedral & went to the viewpoint to see over all the city (25c each way on the local bus).



Day 3: Had an early start to make it to Cajas National Park. Caught a bus at 8.45am from the bus terminal $2 heading to Guayaquil just ask to be dropped at Cajas. we arrived just after 10am. After signing in at the ranger station - You need your passport number! - we hiked route 1. It's just under 4km and it took us just over 3hrs but we did stop (a lot!) for photos & weren't pushing ourselves. From the main road we waved down a bus heading back into Cuenca $2 & then caught a town bus back into the centre for 25c.



We had a night bus to Peru at 10pm so we just chilled out & got some food for the rest of the afternoon / evening.

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Photos

2015-09-27 16.48.49
Cathedral in Cuenca

2015-09-27 16.44.42
Carved door

2015-09-29 15.46.05
Cajas national park