Sun 8th Jan Sunday is market day in a town called Saraguro which is about 3 hours south of Cuenca. We decided to go there as it would be interesting to see the indigenous people, the Saraguro people, coming into town from the surrounding countryside for the market. The Saraguro people originally lived in Peru but ended up here in the 1470s due to the Inca Empire's system of resettlement. We got an early start and were at the bus terminal by 7.15 (I hate getting ...

Sat 7th Today was a really interesting day- we went to visit a local indigenous community of Kushi Wayra about 45 minutes from Cuenca. The visits are organised by the community and is an opportunity to learn about their way of life. The project began with a group of women from the community working together, it has grown to 20 women being involved. The number of women involved in each visit depends on how many visitors there are- we were lucky it was just us! We...

We spent today in Cuenca and luckily it wasn't raining! I had been here before on my last trip (2 years ago) but I felt quite excited in the morning about going out and doing some sightseeing as it seems a while since I have done that! We wandered in the central area of Cuenca, near the cathedral with the blue domes. I like Cuenca because although it is a city, it is a small city and is a nice place to wander. Its historic centre is a Unesco World Heritage Centre...

Wed 4th Jan- Thurs 5th Jan We decided that it was time to move on (4th Jan) so we got a bus to Guayaquil, basically doing the journey I has done to get to Puerto Lopez last time in reverse. We got the bus at 8.45 arriving in Guayaquil by 1pm. Stayed at the same hotel as last time I was here and had a quick lunch at the Ecuadorian fast food place, was slightly quicker this time, but was also very busy with lots of people on their lunch breaks so I'll let them off...

Fri 30th Dec-Tues 3rd Jan Mum arrived late on Thurs 29th, well, very early on the 30th! Obviously it was great to see her :-) We went to the hostel and managed about 3 and a half hours sleep before getting up for the 5am taxi back to the airport! We had decided to spend New Year on the coast and to save a long bus journey after the very long flight from England we flew from Quito to Manta. It was a very quick flight, about 40 minutes , if that. We went straight ...