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Our return to Guayaquil from Galapagos was followed by a really lazy weekend watching lots of films, early starts for the F1 and some clothes shopping! We did make it to the Iguana park in the centre of the city where wild Iguana's live in the park with the trees literally dripping with them- we hadn't realised that they could even climb that well! There was also loads of little turtles in the park pond! I had to visit the shoe shine man outside the park- probably looking quite ridiculous with my flip flops on but he did a great job gluing them back together, and the dollar I paid him probably made it his easiest job of the day!
After a couple of days we caught a bus to meet Elena again in the mountain city of Cuenca. The 4 hour journey was beautiful. Shortly after leaving the city we began to head up into the mountains and the views were spectacular. We spend hours winding through the mountains either just below, just above or right in the clouds. The jungle made it all look a bit mysterious! And Will did his usual papping out of the window- think there´s probably about 200 pictures this time!
We arrived at the hostel Elena had already found and felt a bit posh receiving a note from her off the receptionist! The hostel was right by some very European looking steps down to the river and the whole city had a real mountain town feel with tiny cobbled streets and lots of beautiful churches and cathedrals. It also felt so much more comfortable and safer than anywhere we had visited yet!
The following day we headed to Ingapirca, the biggest Inca ruins in Ecuador. The ruins consisted of a castle (which apparently belongs to Elena!) and surrounding buildings. There were some rocks (bricks) laid out on the floor and our eaves dropping of an English guide taught us that lots of people had stolen them in the past to use as foundations for their houses and that they were now trying to get them all back! We also got to see Alpacas in the field next to it which was quite exciting! On our return to the city we cooked dinner, drank too many mojitos and ended up singing to Elena´s guitar into the early morning on the river bank!
After Elena left Will and I spent a day wondering round different craft markets in the city- mostly it was just the same old grockle but I did find a scarf very similar to one I bought in Laos and proceeding to lose so I now have a replacement!
The following morning we left Cuenca and took a bus, through the rain, to Ambato. We decided to stop here for the night rather than taking another hour bus straight to Baños and checked into a hotel. Ambato is a very un-touristy city and it was strange to suddenly feel that we were the object of people's attention again which we hadn´t really experienced yet in Ecuador. We didn't do much in the city being tired after a 7hour crazy bus driver ride, and managing to find a pizza takeaway place only a few minutes from the hotel!
The next morning we got up to head to Baños (still in the rain!). We initially went to the wrong bus station and a nice man helped us into another taxi and told the driver to take is to the right one. The driver proceeded to act like he didn't understand and tried to take us the hour journey himself! After a lot of confusion we made him stop behind a bus heading to Baños and let us out. The bus started to drive off as the ticket man was putting our bags in the bottom and we had to run and jump onto it as it drove off!
We arrived in Baños two days ago, and it has rained pretty much since! There's loads of outdoor activities to do here so we're hoping it'll either stop or otherwise we might have to brave it! We have just arranged for our first three hour Spanish lessons tomorrow and are going to be doing intensive one to one classes five days a week for the next few weeks! The lady who owns the Spanish school also helps arrange accommodation so hopefully we can find a little apartment to save some money! Otherwise the really nice people at our hostel now said they're able to do deals for people staying long term!
We'll let you know how the Spanish is going soon! Love to all (aren't we good doing two blogs in two days!!- you can tell its raining outside!) xx
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