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Hello from Cuenca!
It´s only been a week since I last updated my journal, but since we´ve started travelling everything has gone so fast. On the first day Becca took me to the Virgin of Quito (see photos) and we spent some time there before heading down onto a walking tour of Quito old town. After ambling around for a bit we had lunch outside the Cathedral of San Francisco and we walked inside afterwards to watch the end of a Mass, they have one every hour! We had earlier been to another cathedral where Sucre, the liberator of Ecuador was buried. The room had a sword and a plaque donated by Hugo Chavez who looms over the continent, only superceeded by his hero Simon Bolivar who is celebrated everywhere with streetnames, statues, paintings and schools etc. Later on in the day I saw his statue in the middle of a busy street in Quito (also see photos). Becca went back to upload some photos and I spent the afternoon walking around the town, checking out La Merced and the Basilica which although concrete and ugly still manages to be impressive. Inside it was bare compared to the other religious buildings and there was a distinct lack of gold, but the silence made it seem really something. Outside, instead of gargoyles, anteaters and pumas leap from the roof. I climbed up inside the main tower and then one of the spires which was a real climb and at its highest point I was standing on a wire mesh spread over beams as I tried to take a photo out of a tiny window. I then walked back to gringo-land and met up with the girls again.
The next day was Saturday and so we headed for the famous Otavalo market where I bought some Ecuadorian trousers (not ones i´d wear out at home, but they are pretty cool) a poncho and an all important alpaca jumper for 4$, i´ve worn it so much i´ve had to get it cleaned already, it´s incredibly comfortable and soft and warm. We caught the bus back laden with gear and I got off about 20 minutes early to visit the Mittar Del Mundo, or centre of the earth. I´d been warned that there were two and one wasn´t correct but everyone seemed to be at the boring monument I was at so I took some photos and got the bus back just as it started to rain. It turns out that I visited the French 19th century monument which was at the sight of a very good guess at the centre of the world. In fact around the corner, in 2000, the army used GPS to correct the location and a new museum was built including a demonstration of how water goes different ways either side of the equator. I´m told walking along it is difficult because you get disorientated. Sadly i´ll never know!
On Sunday we left for Latacunga where tomorrow (Friday 23rd) there are three under-17 South American championship games (getting back proved to difficult which was gutting). We had a pizza in the only open restaurant and then the next morning had an amazing breakfast of yoghurt and yuca bread before heading off to Quilotoa. We arrived in this tiny village at the end of the line after passing through some amazing scenary and a couple of clouds. The village was freezing and very small, but we headed up to the crater only to be disappointed as it was shrouded in clouds. So we took some photos and ran back in the rain to have a hot chocolate and read some Quicha (probably spelt badly wrong) myths. We actually ended up dancing with the owner of the cafe´s children which was crazy but great fun, I prefer Pepe Moreno and the Brazilian Faha but it was still good music.
We woke up at 5:30 the next day to see the sunrise but we just got frostbite and a lot of clouds so I went back to bed and got up at eight, ready to go down to the crater. It was great fun sliding down the steep sides and it took about half an hour to reach the bottom. There we just sat by the bluey-green alkaline water and watched the clouds move overhead. I impusively (and stupidly) had a bit of a Billy Connolly moment and jumped in after disrobing. Now I have been to Durham for three years, i´ve visited my sister in Stirling and I´ve walked through Edinburgh in January with a dress shirt and trousers on but I have never, ever ever been as cold as I was when I hit the water. It was like ice and I was out within the minute! After drying off and taking some more photos we took a donkey up to the top. Mine, a very wheezy creature called Macchu suffered immensely with my weight and so we had to have a fair few stops. There were a few moments as he slid on the stones that i thought we were going over into the gorges either side of us but he came through and deserved his pat on the back at the top.
We then took a pick-up to another village and then a bus back to Latacunga where we said goodbye to Emily, a girl who had done The Leap in Ecuador with Becca and Charlie and who is now in the Galapagos. We jumped on a bus to Ambato and then another one after that to Riobamba where we arrived within 10 minutes of Charlie and her parents at our hostel. Finally we were all together! We slept pretty badly, and I had to be woken up because apparently Ecuador has caused me to make some pretty funky sounds in my sleep, Becca was kind to gently stir me instead of throwing her poncho at me which was what she did in Quito! We got up at 5:30 again and headed to the train station where there were loads of Gringos waiting for the famous Devil´s Nose Train. Charlie and Becca made it onto the roof but I sat inside with an Australian and a lovely German girl who spoke Spanish, French English and a bit of Portugese. She was a lifesaver and we got onto the roof for the last half an hour or so of the 5 hour ride. The scenary was stunning and at times pretty scary! But it was a brilliant trip to do.
Back in Alausi where the journey finished we boarded a bus for Cuenca with lots of the people from the train. It was a five hour journey and I just couldn´t sleep so Charlie and I watched the in-bus movie. The Marine starring some muscle man from wrestling on TV. Oscar-material it was not, and it wasn´t even Chuck Norris quality, but Charlie and I had fun dubbing our own voices over the characters. We arrived in Cuenca where we are now and checked into a little hostel called Cafecita. Last night we went for an amazing meal with Charlie´s parents and this morning we walked around the museum and the new cathedral which is stunning despite the fact that the architect mucked up his plans and so they had to scale it down. This afternoon I walked around to the local market and took some pictures of the Guinea Pigs for sale (For eating) and of the various types of meat hanging from the ceiling, and then I went and looked around a couple of Churches and the Old Cathedral which is now a museum. I was the only visitor and so I had the personal treatment from my guide who kept talking about the glass eyes of the wooden statues of the Virgin and of St Peter, this would have been fine but the poor woman had eyes which seemed to face in every direction so every time (and there must have been at least 15 occurences of this) she mentioned the eyes it was little bit awkward! I walked back to the hostel via a book shop where I picked up some Graham Greene books having finally finished my Tolstoy stories and having given Becca my Gabrial Garcia Marquez book which is in my opinion impossible! This evening we´re heading out for some food and then going to this bar in a Grotto which should be fun! Till next time (probably in Peru)......
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