After our longest bus journey to-date (6 hours) last Friday, we´ve arrived in Cuenca, Ecuador´s 3rd largest city. And a very nice place it is too - the old town at least. It´s all cobbled streets and whitewashed, colonial buildings with red tiled roofs.
We had planned to stay in a hostal mentioned in our Lonely Planet guidebook, but we were accosted at the bus station by a very nice man, with very nicely printed leaflets for the Pachamama hostal (and the offer of a lift to view it!). Good choice. Basic but very quiet (apart from the occasional protective dog next door) and homely. We´ve had use of the kitchen so for a couple of nights we´ve been putting our culinary skills to use.
Yesterday we took a bus trip to Gualaceo(?) to have a browse round its Sunday market and a stroll along the river, a popular venue for Ecuadorian families to have a picnic.
Today we took (yet) another bus to the ancient Inca site of PinkyPerky, sorry, private joke, Ingapirca. 5 hours round trip to view a pile of rubble. Mmmm. Okay, Caz has made me say that it was a TIDY pile of rubble!
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