Blogs from Cuenca, South, Ecuador, South America - page 49

We arrived in cuenca, a colonial city in the south of Ecuador.. back at altitude! On our way we passed millions of bananas... for miles and miles! Cuenca is a really pretty colonial city with beautiful churches and buildings. There is loads to to surrounding it too, including Cajas national park with loads of lakes. We decided to do have some mountain adventures on the back of a horse.. it was really fun. We went through the mountains on horseback and could see amazing views. We stopped at the top of the mountain for lunch..It was really beautiful. Lo´s horse was a bit naughty and would chose not to carry on.. and just stop! Mine was very rapido and would gallap.. no matter how much I shouted Alto.. he just wouldnt stop! The next day we ... read more

Hola all. I wanted to start by putting down a thought I have had recently about travelling, although it takes a little background information to make sense. In cognition there is a division between bottom-up and top-down "information flow" in the brain. Basically this is the difference between information, like sound waves hitting your ear drum or light rays hitting your retina, going towards your mind (phenomenological field, or ongoing conscious experience) and memories and cognition finding a place for this bottom-up information. In cognition, until very recently, the mind has been seen as mostly bottom-up information flow. So you look at something, says the cognitive scientist, it goes through "filters" and eventually leads to a perception, such as "I am looking at a dog". However, philosophers as old as Plato, have recognized that the story ... read more

After spending a day in Quito, we went to Galapagos a few days before our tour started so we could do some diving and get a feel of the place. We flew to Santa Cruz on the 9th December, and went to Puerto Ayora, the main town on the Galapagos Islands. It was a very nice small town with a harbour a lots of boats. Our hotel was noisy so we moved the next day to one with a view of the sea, and from our balcony we could see some great new neighbours: some sea lions on a pier, a blue footed booby, marine iguanas (the only iguanas that swim!) and frigate birds flying across the sky circling on the look out for food (they survive by stealing food off other birds, and cant fish ... read more

If you are blonde and a girl, be prepared to be stared at constantly, have comments and blokes approach you all the time and even get followed or flashed at in places! This place is INCREDIBLY conservative and pretty hard core on the Catholic religion. Rio Tomebamba divides Cuenca and has, along its banks, old colonial buildings plus washerwomen laying out their clothes. Also, not in the guidebooks, kids sniffing glue and a whole load of perverts. The markets here are all pretty much centrally located. And there are loads of them of various sizes. Markets for fruit and veg, markets for flowers, markets for crafts and, of course, markets for the famous Panama hat. Parque Nacional Cajas A huge park (28,800 hectare) with loads of lakes, mountains to climb and no-one else around. We did ... read more

After a cup of coffee at my hostel, I went for a stroll around town. It was a beautiful morning, nice breeze, people chatting on the street corners. Suddenly, a man tapped me on the shoulder and said in Spanish, “Sir, you have mustard all over the back of your pants.” I turned and was surprised to see bright yellow mustard squirted all over the back of my legs. “Come over here. There is a bathroom here where you can clean up.” His disingenuous offers only angered me more. The bastard took me for a fool. His ruse was so transparent. Every traveller knows the friendly stranger "let me help while my friends rob you" trick. Blase had warned me about it after his travels in Chile. I immediately grabbed him by the waist and threw ... read more