Ecuador: around Cuenca & south to Peru

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Cuenca turned out to be one of our favourite places in Ecuador. The weather was ok, although at times a bit too grey since the rain season which should have ended in May is hanging on a bit. We met the Jesse family there again - we had met them initially in Quito just before we left for the Galapagos Islands. It was great to spend more time with them. And then Kathy and Rick (friends from internet contact who had picked us up some parts for the truck in the USA on a short visit there before they shipped from Panama) raced through Ecuador from the northern border crossing to Cuenca in just a few days to catch us for a visit and to deliver the parts. So we were three campers in the streets of Cuenca - the most travellers we had spent time with since being in Belén, Costa Rica last November.
In between socialising with our new friends, we both spent considerable time at the dentist. Juergen finally got his implant finished (started in Costa Rica) and a new tooth attached. He no longer has to make sure that I take photos on his 'good side' - the one that doesn't show the gap! I spent 7½ hours in 5 appointments over 3 days having 2 root canals and the preparation for the crowns. That was an exhausting experience, but I love my new teeth and am pleased to be able to chew on both sides of my mouth again! We must mention here that Umberto was extremely helpful to all of us travellers over the time; with finding the best places to do the things that needed doing, and lots of advice on places to go and how to get there. It was he that made the initial dentist appointment for us.
The historical centre of Cuenca drew us back on many occasions. It wasn't just to visit "Nice Cream", but that certainly helped. On one side of the main park, along from the 'New' Cathedral (started in 1885), there is an ice cream shop that serves the best ice cream we have eaten since Mexico - it is open to debate where exactly the last place was, but suffice to say, the ice cream at "Nice Cream" was so good (and the cakes weren't too bad either) that I think we went there at least 7 times in 3 weeks! But there were also beautiful buildings to see, interesting markets to visit, people to watch, internet cafes with quite fast internet, and we also visited the hat-making museum, where Juergen followed the process as explained by a guide to a large group - in Spanish - and I tried on hats! The more time we spent in the city, the more we liked it.
In between visits to Umberto's, we tried out "urban camping" (Robert Jesse's phrase) when the roosters got to be too much. We found ourselves welcome and quite at home on a suburban street, next to a riverside park. The locals were nice to us, even when there were 3 vehicles lined up on the last 2 nights there. It was relatively quiet and we felt secure with all the residents looking out for us.

There were a few things that needed attention on the truck - as always. Juergen had the tyres rotated and we also spent some time trying to find someone who could tell us why the engine runs sporadically rough. No answer was forthcoming so we decided not to spend any more time on it here and to continue on in the hope that cleaner fuel might be available in the next country - or if not, there might be a mechanic who doesn't scratch his head as soon as he sees what we have under the bonnet (hood) - you would think we had brought the vehicle from Mars. Thankfully it still runs and sometimes reasonably well...
We also took a couple of trips out of town. The first was out to a small town called Sigsig where it was suggested there might be an interesting Sunday market. The Jesses joined us for this excursion which included a stop off in San Bartolomé on the way out and Gualaceo on the way back. It was planned to spend 2 nights on the way but we received a phone call on Saturday afternoon from Kathy and Rick to say they had arrived in Cuenca, so on Sunday afternoon we were back in town to meet them. The drive was pleasant, the roads better than average. San Bartolomé is a very nice little village to walk around in. Beside the river in Sigsig we found an extremely quiet place to sleep. Sigsig market wasn't exceptional but an interesting people-watching opportunity - and there were some very elaborate coffins to be seen in a funeraria's (undertaker's) shop window. Gualaceo has a pleasant riverside park where we had lunch on Sunday and Evan Jesse (15 year old son) tried his hand at fishing in the river, which was reportedly a lot of fun but nothing to show for it.
The Jesses spent some time at the Cajas National Park, which is less than 20 km out of Cuenca. Kathy and Rick and Juergen and I joined them for a couple of days. It is somewhat higher and quite a bit colder, but it was nice to be out of town. The park closes at 4:30 and was therefore very quiet overnight. Evan was fishing a lot, without much success, but we had a great meal of trout one night, which Susan cooked for us. Robert and Evan actually went outside the park to catch the trout - there are a number of trout farms along the main road where the fish just jump out of the water on your command - or so I'm told.
We finally left Cuenca on Tuesday when we had visited all the mechanics we wanted to see, ate all the ice cream we could manage and the urge to move again came upon us. There are some quite good supermarkets in Cuenca so we stocked up before moving on in case we don't find some of our favourite things further down the road. We are also being spurred along a little by the fact that my best friend from Australia will join us in southern Peru to visit Machu Picchu in a few weeks and there are a lot of kilometres between here and there. The Jesses left the same day, taking the coastal route into Peru, and Kathy and Rick will be leaving soon to explore Ecuador. We set off down the road to Loja, and then on to Vilcabamba on Wednesday.
Cuenca to Loja is 205 km. We spent 6½ hours on the road with a lunch break and a few brief photo stops. Once again the word 'highway' is a misnomer when talking about the Pan Americana in Ecuador! In places they were working on the road laying a new concrete surface and when we got to drive on some of that the kilometres flew by, but the majority of the road was pavement with a lot of potholes and earth movement upheavals. The scenery however was once again awesome. I never get tired of the vistas in the Andes - driving along in between what appears to be just hilltops and then around a bend and suddenly mountains which seem to go on forever. It remains to be seen if I will have had enough by the time we are in Chile and Argentina.
Just over half-way between Cuenca and Loja is the village of Saraguro. The local people came originally from the area around Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, from where they were forcibly resettled by the Incas. Their traditional dress is predominantly black for the woman. There should be a good market there on Sundays when all the locals congregate in the town. We missed that but we did see many of them along the road as we drove through. Almost every woman was carrying a spindle and a hunk of raw wool, spinning as they walked. We even saw some step off a bus spinning!
Originally we had thought find a place to stay in Saraguro, but it seemed to be rather precariously perched on the side of the mountain and we thought it might be difficult to find somewhere level. Also the main road into town was closed for construction. So we drove on and eventually reach Loja, where we stayed overnight, and drove the short distance to Vilcabamba on Wednesday morning. Since arriving at the Hosteria Izhcayluma, we have rested, looked at the mountains, used the internet, performed a few odd jobs in the camper, and waited for some nice weather to walk the 2 km into the town. It is not cold here, but there are lots of clouds, little sun and intermittent rain. A couple more days and we will probably head for the border and into Peru.

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