Banos and Cuenca

I spent mon to weds of this week in Banos, the adventure capital of Ecuador. It´s my idea of a perfect town. It´s set in a valley surrounded by hills and mountains that are ideal for trekking, climbing and mountain biking and all of it within a kilometre of the centre. So it was a real shame that I had a stomach bug which meant I was tied by a 500 metre invisible leash to the loo in my room at the hostel. Great. The most adventurous thing I was able to do was read a 750 page book, which is a first at least. Unfortunately, it seems there are no english book shops in Ecuador so the only choices are those left in hostels by other travellers. I would definitely recommend reading a book that you wouldn´t normally bother picking up. The offending title was Man in Full by Tom Woolf.

By Wednesday I was feeling ok and decided I´d better get a move on since I´d been in Ecuador for three weeks and was only about 100 miles south of the equator (out of the 5000 or so that I need to cover to make it to the boat). I hopped on a bus and made the 8hr trip to Cuenca.

Cuenca is a stunning old colonial town with cobbled streets and some really impressive old buildings. (Why is it that run down, uncared for buildings in some countries look charming and rustic whereas back home they just look like dumps?). Its the first time that I´ve been on my own during this trip and I’m glad for all the ‘training’ that I’d had being alone on city business trips, so that I already knew that its far easier to feel lonely in a city with a million people than, say, in the middle of a jungle with only 4 others.

For an hour or so this morning I set off doing all the usual ‘tourist’ things like visiting markets, museums and churches, until I realised what I was doing and headed off in search for the best bar in town. I found two, Wunderbar and The Austrian Cafe, where I enjoyed spending the rest of the day watching the world go by and finishing my second book of the week (The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Murial Somebodyorother).

Off to Vilcabamba tomorrow and then across the border into Peru to find something more interesting to write about…

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