Blogs from South, Ecuador, South America - page 69

After not doing Riobamba justice (didn't really look around that much) you would have thought that Emma and I would do a better job of seeing Cuenca, Ecuador's third largest city. Unfortunately the laziness hadn't yet worn off so we really only saw a portion of the city and didn't explore as we normally would. That said, we immediately felt at home in Cuenca. Despite the warnings in the guidebook that care should be taken after 10pm, we didn't once feel threatened, which wasn't true of Riobamba. We were in Cuenca as we'd heard that the Christmas processions were something worth seeing, and we didn't want to be travelling over Christmas, despite my "bah humbug" tendencies! Cuenca lived up to our expectations and then some.... We'd arrived with the same crew that we'd been in Ingapirca ... read more

There are few if any volcanoes in Teddington. In Ecuador, however, they are very popular. Almost as popular as shops selling religious tat and taxis that try to kill you. The inhabitants of Baños live right underneath a 16,500 footer called Tungurahua that began erupting in 1999. The government evacuated the town and surrounding area, fearing the worst. By January, nothing had happened, so the townsfolk, by now becoming unpopular with the relatives they had been staying with, forced their way past the military blockades and returned to their homes. When they got there most of them found their homes and businesses had been looted. ¿Tough, eh? Another interesting volcano fact: the Galapagos Islands are composed entirely of them. One island alone (Isabela) has five, and each one is host to a different subspecies of giant ... read more

¡Hola from Cuenca! Day 7 of our trip. We have reached the most southern point of our expedition. After leaving Baños (Banyos), we took a four hour bus drive south to Alausi. A pretty uneventful trip - we´re getting used to the buses, and we think our first ride out of Quito was the worst, ummm, most exciting, so far. Alausi was pretty much just a stop on our way to Cuenca, but we´re glad we got there. It´s a small town without a lot going on. We saw lots of indigenous people with their beautiful, colorful clothing. There was a ´Barney´ circus in town, believe it or not, and the morning we were leaving we saw the 2 lions they were showing there. It was sad - very tiny lodging for the lions - but ... read more

Its Rich calling and oh yes, i have a camera. And i didnt need to sell a kidney to get it, although I could have live here for a month on that money. Ah well, the moral to this story is don´t put delicate electronics in rivers. Lots of fun has been had of late, and after four weeks of intensive language tuition i have learned one thing above all else. I cant speak Spanish, although I´m getting pretty good at Spanglish. Now when i try to converse with the locals they insult me in Spanish! Hooray! Update for Friday. In the morning I endured a visit to a Panama hat factory. Here we witnessed the really quite impressive spectacle of people hand making hats, at huge cost in man hours, for people to buy without ... read more

Yo yo, tis Rich. Jen and I decided to celebrate the theft of our day sack (along with my MP3 player, damnit) in style. It was clear after Cuenca got through the quarter final on agregate (see entry GOOOOAAL) that we would have to track down the semi final against the frankly much better Liga Quito, and watch the plucky Cuencan team get the sound thrashing that was coming to them. Fortunately, we didnt have far to go, it was in Cuenca again. Along with our school buddies Addie and Mora, we decided to go in style this time, and get hammered. Half a bottle of rum each later, washed down with some rum from bars along the way, we finally made it to the stadium. What can I say? Brilliant, that´s what. Fuelled heavily with ... read more