Day 10-12: Back on the mainland. Cuenca, Ecuador

We made it safe and sound to Cuenca, Ecuador. Its the third largest city in Ecuador but has such a wonderful charm to it. Cuenca is a great example of how the past and the present mingle together; there are plenty of churches and cathedrals that were built during the Spanish Colonial era as well as the much more modern malls and Victoria´s Secret stores. Our hostel is right downtown called La Casa Naranja. Its actually an old colonial house that has been restored. It had very high ceilings and you had to walk outside to get to the bathroom. Our room itself smelled aweful like urine and there was no way to air it out because there were no windows so we burnt a candle when we were in there. But there was hot water! Actually every place we´ve stayed so far has had hot water (except for the boat in the Galapagos) so that hasn´t been an issue yet.

Every morning we woke up to a rooster crowing way too loud, way too early. He was obviously confused because he started to crow around 3:30 in the morning. We started the days early and walked around the city. There were so many little shops everywhere. The bread shops were my favorite to walk by because they smelled so good. There are little stores for everything; suits, bread, icecream, and convenience stores. One day a girl named Sofia, native to Cuenca, randomly walked up to us and started a conversation and showed us where the market was to buy indeginous goods. Dana bought a really cute woven purse and I bought a white linen shirt that had been hand embroidered. We basically did a lot of walking and bargaining for fun. The last night we went out for cuy. Its the delicacy of Ecuador and Peru, geniue pig, and yes we ate it. It had the head and eyeballs and teeth all still there! It actually wasn´t a bad texture for meat but we agreed that we didn´t like the way it was seasoned and will not eat it again probably. We tried to go out to some bars or discotecas with a guy we met who was staying at our hostel, but it just seemed like everyone was hanging out outside so we bought a bottle of rum and a 3 liter of coke for $4 and went back to the Hostel. It was a quiet night of sharing stories.

We are now in Lima, Peru and are traveling about three hours south to Ica tomorrow. We´ll be staying there for 4 or 5 days. Apparently there is sand boarding on the itnerary? We´re excited. We also met back up with our friend from Quito, Jorge, who´s going with us as well as a girl from Holland who wants to tag along.

Thanks for following along--more pictures to come!