After having an adrenalin packed adventure in Banôs we headed south to a placed called Cuenca, which is a city full of beautiful churches and cathedrals steeped in history and culture. This is exactly what the group needed as we have been travelling non stop and not had a chance to wind down and take advantage of chill out time the group well deserved.

From Banôs we got a local bus that took approximately 10 hours to get to Cuenca on extremely bumpy unpaved roads and where the bus driver must have learnt how to drive from the Chuck Norris School Of Driving. Overtaking on blind corners or attempting to overtake 4 other bus in one hit is not my idea of fun and especially not in a bus that was older than me and on it’s last legs.

The 10 hours of fear was over and we arrived in Cuenca bus terminal in the evening to be bombarded by many locals offering places to stay. One lady in particular would not leave us alone and even helped us get a taxi thinking that we was going to her hostel. In the end we ended up checking into her hostel, which was a very quirky little place that was owned by someone like Basil Fawlty. The hostel itself looked like a disused apartment block that had been badly finished by a DIY enthusiast. But the owner was extremely helpful and would bend over backwards for us. On the first evening we decided to go to the supermarket around the corner from the hostel to pick up some supplies, but as it was 10 PM it was about to close. The owner from the hostel came out and tried to get it reopened for us but failed, however his good intentions was there.

The family that own the hostel also had a pet rabbit called Pancho. This rabbit was not afraid of anything and would even try muscle / fight against people in order to stay in the warmth as the owner always kept the rabbit outside. The rabbit was also extremely greedy and ate everything in sight providing it has not been contaminated with onion as we found out.

Day 1

On our first day in Cuenca we took a stroll through the local markets in the morning. Cuenca had a wide range of markets but the majority sold fresh fruit and vegetables, raw meats and cooked food. Along the cooked food stalls was a large span of roast pig / hog heads, empanada stalls and fresh juice stall like in a modern trendy shopping mall, but Ecuadorian style. So all the healthy conscious can get their vitamin boost with ease.

In the afternoon we decided to walk along Rio Tomebamba which is the main river that ran through the city. Unfortunately for Kev he did not join us as he was still feeling rough from the dodgy stomach we all got from a burger we had in Banôs. Walking along Calle Larga which is the road parallel to Rio Tomebama you can find all the main shops, bars and restaurants. About ¾ down the road we also passed the Panama Hat museum, which is the famous hat produced in Ecuador.

Day 2

On our last day we visited 9 of the 12 listed churches / cathedrals in Cuenca. During our sight seeing we bumped into a small group of local girls who we thought wanted us to take a picture for them. But instead they wanted to take pictures with us which we thought was very strange. However, this will turn out to be the start of a new craze for us called ‘Photo with a Gringo Phenomenon’. See later post for more details.

As tonight was our last night in Ecuador we wanted to taste guinea pig before we left which is a local delicacy to Ecuador and Peru. After speaking with the hostel owner we discovered that you can get cheap guinea pig from the market we explored the day before. The guinea pig cost us 6 dollars from the market which we brought back to the hostel to eat (See later post for more details of eating guinea pig). Despite being absolutely delicious the guinea pig was tiny and lacked any quantity to justify it being a real meal meaning the group went out for a meal at a local pizzeria. Here we got a stone baked pizza, drink and ice cream for 4 dollars!!

Next stop Lima, with a recovered and revitalised Goonie crew.