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Date: 8th October and 9th October 2006
We packed camp up early today as we were leaving for Cuenca at 8:00. We had a long drive but after 7 hours we stopped for lunch and a visit to the Incapirca ruins which are just outside of a little town called El Tambo. These were cool to see, we learnt that Incapirca was going to be a stronghold for the north (the Machu Picchu of the north.) However it was never completed due to the Spanish capturing the Inca king. One other thing we thought was mega cool was that the Incas didnt use mortar they made their bricks like lego that fitted together, anyway I was impressed :), we also saw this truck full of local dipsticks almost drive over the side of a ramp thing hehe. After about another hour we arrived in Cuenca which is a fairly big town, we checked into the Hotel Gran which was pretty nice and had a quick city tour (as it was late) with Mike. About 10 of us ate at a chinese called Cheifa Long Yang so you can image the jokes I milked out of that one hehe. The menu at this restaurant had us in stiches with the english equivalents of some dishes like ´Jumped Chicken on the Plate´and ´Beef to the Iron it is a special sauce´and we were winding eachother up as there was a cat hanging about the kitchen :( we were wandering if the chicken would be cat and none of us would have been surprised there, but it wasnt thank god!!
Next day we went round the town and visited the Panama Hat factory which was sweet, after a short tour showing how they make the hats and Mel and I both ended up buying one to be sent home (Rusty didnt get one as he already has hie new hat from Otavalo.) It was cool to see how they are made, shaped and sized, although the factory was much smaller than we all had imagined. We also visited the main cathedral in the main Plaza de Armes that they have there which was really pretty and alot of religious spanish were in there saying their prayers, some were crying so we didnt want to stay there too long. We also looked around the local market where Rusty got himself a new hoodie. That night Mel and I took advantage of the nice room to get a good nights sleep, Rusty went out for a bit with some of the others to the Wunderbar. We were leaving Cuenca next day to head into Peru so a good nights kip was a good idea for us, its not good feeling rough on Doris!!
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