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We're back at another airport, this time flying back from Cuenca, a little city in the south of Ecuador and with an hour delay i thought i'd take advantage of the free internet. Before I knew it, I heard a familiar language, three guys chatting from Salerno near Naples. It was so nice to chat abit, you know where my loyalty and heart lies!
We've had lovely varied few days here.The city is alittle more compact than Quito and all in all alittle more modern and familiar. Mum and I have been trying to figure out Ecuadorians over the past few days.They are extremely friendly at first but then if you start asking for anything in particular they seem to get offended very quickly. Likewise if you order something and they havent' got it , they mightn't tell you at first and then bring something else. Take Monday, we hired a private driver to drive us here from Banos. He collected us on time and then 10mins down the road, he slowed down outside a house.. do you mind if i bring my wife. His wife jumped in before we could say anything. When we asked him about stopping for lunch he says calmly 'we'll stop alittle further on' . Time passed & we were getting seriously hungry so I asked him if we could stop. Oh no,he says we're going straight on!Well why didnt you tell us that. We stopped at a bakery and mum and I bought lunch for ourselves and for them. Our hotel was located just off the central square and when we pulled up, there wasn't really anywhere for him to pull in. He pulled in annoyed at the side of the street, the porter took our bags quickly, he counted the money we gave him & pulled off before we could check properly that we had everything without saying goodbye or anything. Thank you too !! I immediately realised I had left my jacket on the back window so i contacted the hotel who organised him to call him to drop it back. There was no question he would ( he could of only been 15mins away) so I told them put in a taxi from a nearby town. Taxi's cost nothing and i'm quite partial to that jacket. Mum& I went out for a stroll after settling in & by a stroke of complete luck, we were walking along a side street when they appeared next to us. Great team work on the part of me and mum, she took the jacket from his wife who was now sitting in the back while I dealt with him claiming I didn't understand what he was asking.He wanted us to pay him for coming back and we had given him almost a months wages for the average person here! We couldn't stop laughing at how lucky we'd been!
Monday evening after dinner we asked the hotel if they could organise some transport to the nearby National Park of Cajas for the following morning. He called Wilsen, never mind the fact that it was 10.30 and arranged for us to be picked up Tuesday morning at 8. We joined two dutch girls and 10mins out the road, he got a phonecall. He turned around smiling. Do you mind if we go back and picked up two more people. He was so nice that you couldnt really say anything! We really should of read the guide book fully before going! The park is 29,000 sprawl of wilderness, lakes and unusual plants set 4,000 above sea level. Although it wasnt cold by irish standards we should of been dressed alittle more heavily but very kindly one of the dutch girls gave mum a polo and a lovely german lady a pair leggings and a scarf. We set off for three hour hike over rocks, through water ,sliding down embankemnts as most of the surface were slippy after rain the night before in pursuit of discovering this vast wilderness that many had done in the past walking from Guayacil to the South of Ecuador. We came across of wonderful tangled forest which reminded me of something out of Peter Pan. The group were lovely and the atmosphere very relaxed and contented. When we got back to Cuenca late in the afternoon we treated ourselves to a lovely slice of chocolate cake from a really quaint coffe shop near our hotel and hit the shops for abit of retail therapy. Let's just say my mum's case is quickly filling up.
Yesterday we took ourselves off early in the morning to another little town called Banos near Cuenca. Banos meaning Baths refering to the abundance of Natural spring water. We went to a resort where you pay an entrance to use the pools and turkish baths so we floated the morning away in the lovely warm water. Funnily you do nothing but it seriously exhausts you. We were dead when we got back in the afternoon. We took a stroll around the central bank musuem. Enlightening if you can read spanish abit not so easy if you can't. It explained all about the different indigenous cultures but to be honest we seemed to be interested in checking out everyone at reception being held. We found out after they were honouring the commission of a new coin in recognition to an Ecuadorian Athlete who won the Olympics a couple of years ago. I attempted to drag my poor mum to a salsa bar last night. We had dinner late and headed down there at 10.30. Unfairnes the crowd outside seeemd very young so she claimed I am seriously too old for this so we headed back!
This morning we head out to visit the workshop of Senor Vega, a ceramic artist. We couldn't make up our minds what to buy, they were so many beautiful pieces but in preparation for all the cooking and experimenting I am going to be doing I bought some serving dishes and some cute mugs with our beloved favourite Galapagos creatures. Senor Vega started chatting to us. His wife had come to Ecuador 20 years previously from Dublin with her family as her father was the consulate. The world is such a small place.
It's back to the airport in the morning as we fly again to Coca to experience the Amazon for the weekend.
Lots of love from Ecuador XX
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