Following the unexpected lunch stop we head south
again along some winding mountain roads in rain and thick mist. It’s OK though because the mist is thick
enough for us not to be able to see the bottom.
A bus came off a similar road in Peru a few weeks ago and killed thirty
five people but I’m sure you can work out that if I’m writing this, we arrived
safely in Cuenca.
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| Cuenca Cathedral |
Apparently there’s some rivalry between Cuenca and
Quito for which is the most attractive city.
Well, you can’t see any snow-capped volcanoes from it but Cuenca gets my
vote. It’s polluted but perhaps not as
badly as Quito and it didn’t seem quite so run down. However, as my opinion is based on only a
handful of days in each it probably isn’t worth much. Cuenca does have a spectacular Cathedral,
seemingly based on the Paris Notre Dame with a rose window based on one in York
Minster. It was pretty busy on a midweek
morning with a queue for confession, a service in a side chapel and a variety of
people sitting around looking thoughtful.
Very high and airy, it was quite a sight. While we were there we climbed up to a
viewing platform above the main entrance and enjoyed excellent views across the
city, sunny but coolish.
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| from the viewing roof, Cuenca Cathedral |
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| a typically well loaded local |
One evening we went to a free classical concert in
the old cathedral, just across the square from the Notre Dame lookalike. It was played by the local university
orchestra and even to my ears there were a few bum notes played but overall it
was very enjoyable. New World Symphony
being one of the pieces played and although I know that’s really about North
America rather than South, it was appropriate enough for me.
Restaurants and cakes were fine here although in
one restaurant Newt and I both ordered Sea Bass. Part way through, the owner did the usual and
asked how everything was, “fine apart from the fact that this isn’t sea-bass”
was my reply. The best answer we got was
that it might be a different fish to what they call sea bass in other places !
(or words to that effect). Still, we
were given some ripe cherries and a free glass of spirits each at the end of
the meal. I later saw sea bass on other restaurant’s
menus in quotes.
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| Cuenca |
We took a hop on hop off bus here, misplaced a
ticket and realised that a taxi to everywhere we wanted to go was much
cheaper. We did see some Inca remains, a
very pleasant garden and a horrible aviary with big birds in cages that were
too small. Actually, all cages are too
small. Having lunch in a restaurant high
up above the city made it even more obvious that the Andes aren’t just a line
of mountains here, most of what we had come through were high valleys with
peaks and volcanoes out to each side. I
did enjoy being so close to the equator and it not being hot and humid.
Our last stop southwards was a five hour minibus
ride taking us to a very attractive hotel run by two German brothers whose masterstroke
was to provide the minibus from Cuenca straight to their hotel for $15 a
person. On the way south we drove
through what looked very much like a cross between heathland and moorland but
with Pampas Grass dotted across it. The Izhcayluma was easily the most attractive
hotel we had stayed in on this trip with some lovely gardens and it enjoyed
great views across a valley with the small town of Vilcabamba nestled in the
bottom. We had our own detached cabin
set on a hillside with views looking west towards the verdant and very green
mountainside opposite. The main draw of
the town for me was that it had a cash machine and the main highlight was
seeing someone wander across the pavement in front of me who I swear was Keith
Richards. We could walk down to the town
in about twenty five minutes and all four of us could get a taxi back for $1.
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| early morning Vilcabamba from the Izhcayluma Hotel |
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| and late afternoon, both shots from the open sided restaurant |
Now, many people think we travel in a risky way,
dangers, robbery and all that but wherever we’ve been we’ve found people to be
unfailingly helpful and friendly, Yes,
there are rip offs at some times, there are robberies at some times but nobody
ever publicises how many travellers have no problem at all. It just isn’t news and what problems there
are happen in London and New York and every other place you could name. Here are two true stories from Ecuador. In Banos, Heather left her binoculars in a
taxi. The next day, they were left by
the taxi driver back at the hotel for her.
In Vilcabamba it was my turn. I
left a small rucksack in a taxi with my waterproof and a very nice new Rohan
sweater of Heather’s in it. The hotel
owners phoned around and two days later we were just walking into the hotel as
a taxi pulled up. The driver called out
to us and we said we’d not ordered a cab but out he got out with the rucksac
and everything in it. He seemed
delighted when I gave him $10.
This hotel was described as a backpacker hotel but
I think the guests were rather more well-heeled than most people’s idea of
backpackers. It had a good restaurant, yoga
classes, massages and a variety of new-agey fakery adverts. I had a massage while Heather and Bonnie had
the defoliation treatment of being rubbed with salt and oil. Well, now they really are seasoned
travellers. Yes I know but it was
irresistible.
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| Bonnie, Newt, Heather |
It was at the end of this hotel stay that Bonnie
(as Granny-In-Waiting) and Newt left for home and we headed to the coast and
the heat and humidity. Our trip back north was spectacular, mostly
clear but with mist drifting about in the distance. The road ahead could be seen clearly, cutting
across the hillsides and appearing to be suspended halfway between the valley
bottom and the sky while the landscape was rucked and convoluted. A Canadian ex-pat living in Vilcabamba sat
next to Heather on the bus and was explaining how about 25% of the population
are foreigners, mostly US and Canadian.
He said he paid $50 a year in Ecuadorian property taxes and for three or
four months a year his wife worked as a nurse in a Californian hospital for $80
an hour.
We’d caught the hotel minibus back to Cuenca where
we grabbed some lunch and then a taxi to the bus station. After buying our tickets we walked thirty or
forty yards to the gate and had to pay a further 10 cents into a machine to get
to the bus !? Back on a very
comfortable bus for the last time this trip, four hours to Guayaquil. The buses here in Ecuador have a bell, just
the one, to let the driver know if a stop is required. There’s a door between the driver/conductor
area and the passengers and just outside that and at ceiling height is the
bell. Now I’ve mentioned the diminutive
stature of the locals so they just can’t reach the bell and have to tap on the
glass with a coin to get the driver’s attention. All customer focused you see. This bus ran very high, crossing a pass at
about 12,500 feet where the landscape looked very much like the highlands of
Scotland. Very moor like and empty.
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| Guayaquil old town, 450 steps up and down |
Guayaquil is where all the flights to Galapagos,
600 miles to the west leave from. It’s
on the coast, is hotter and more humid than we’ve been used to and we have two
days here before we fly home. It has a
very pleasant park along the very wide river where you can watch tons of Water
Hyacinth drifting past on the current and piling up against any
obstruction. For those of you who don’t
know, Water Hyacinth is a South American native plant with bladders which hold
air, so they float with their roots dangling in the water. It is horrible stuff and one of the worst
invasive plants introduced to other countries you can imagine. In south east Asia we’ve seen waterways so
clogged with it that boats can hardly get through and the shade it causes kills
everything else off. It is a real
menace but we fortunately don’t suffer with it in Britain because it isn’t
frost hardy. Guayaquil’s old town sits on
a hill overlooking the city and is the fashionable pastel shaded area, 440 odd
steps to the top, cooled by the breeze and with views across the city and
river.
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| Guayaquil's pastel old town |
On a walk round we decided to visit the tourist
office and had to get directions from two people before we found it on the
second floor of a building whose list of offices sign on the ground floor made
no mention of it. Once there, Heather
asked if it was the tourist office, someone said they’d phone someone, Heather
said we only wanted a map and one was produced. Well, we got a map but the scale made it
pretty well useless. Certainly a
different tourist office experience to the top class Japanese one but overall a
very enjoyable trip made so much easier by travelling with Bonnie and Newt,
good friends who’ve been to Ecuador before and shared their experience of the
place with us.
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