Cuenca and the Incapirca ruins

[b]´How does it feeeeeel? How does it feeeel? To be without a home, Like a complete unknown, Like a rolling stone ?

Hello everyone

Just a quick update on our progress as I am not sure when we will next have access to the internet. Tomorrow we head further south in Ecuador to the countryside town of Vilcabamba. We are actually staying in a hostel 2km from the town, it looks fab. Lots of hiking opportunities, a swimming pool and a hammock outside our room. The website is www.izhcayluma.com for anyone interested. We have booked in for 3 nights, but may stay a night or so longer if we are enjoying it.

After that we head across the border into Peru and make our way down to Lima where we are meeting outr good friend Craig on March 25th. We´ll stop off at a few places on the way to admire some Inca ruins and hopefully do some hiking.

Tomorrow we have a 5 hour bus journey to the town of Loja, then another 1.5 hour bus ride to Vilcabamba. Pretty much a day of travel. Thankfully we have some good books to get stuck into and the nano is fully charged. We haven´t been up to a great deal since I last wrote, so here is just a quick update.

Friday March 7th
We woke at 9am and Lynn had a thumping headache and a sore ankle. On our way to dinner the previous night Lynn slipped in a pothole on the pavement and sprained her ankle. We had a lovely dinner at the Boca del Lobo restaurant in the new town area of Quito. We did have a bit of wine, but not enough to give Lynn the thumping headache she had.

We checked out around 11.45am and got a taxi to the airport for our 45 minute flight to Cuenca, instead of a 10 hour bus journey - the roads are not the best in Ecuador. It was a tiny plane and a fairly bumpy ride to Cuenca. We got our bags incredibly quickly and got a $2 cab into town and checked into the Hostal El Monastario for 3 nights, the total cost being $42! The room had cable and we had our own private bathroom - result!

We had a walk around town and grabbed a bite to eat at Cafe Austria, before having an early night as Lynn still wasn´t feeling too great.

Saturday March 8th
We got up and had a walk around Cuenca. It is a lovely small city full of old architectural gems. Our hostal is around the corner from the stunning Cathedral de la Immaculada and the main square. We grabbed some brunch at a lovely restaurant in a converted old townhouse. Then I got a haircut from someone who I am not sure if they were a man or woman. After that we walked to the bus station, 2km out of town, to book our bus to Loja for Monday, only $15 for the two of us.

We came back to the room and had a nap, waking to turn on ESPN to find that Barnsley had knocked Chelsea out of the FA Cup. Sadly United had lost earlier that day to Portsmouth. At night we went to a bar called Monday Blue, hopefully a homeage to New Order and had a couple of beers and burritos.

Sunday March 9th
We got up at 7.30am as we had booked a day tour to the Incapirca ruins, around 80km outside of Cuenca. There were 5 others on the tour, an eccentric old Danish couple who intend to drive around the world next year, an American girl, a nice German girl called Peggy and a nice girl from Melbourne called Emma. Our tour guide Sonia was fantastic. We stopped off about an hour outside Cuenca at a small market town and wandered round the stalls, buying some banana´s for breakfast. We then bought some small and very tasty eggs for only 50 cents.

We then drove to the ruins. They were not the most impressive I have ever seen, but they are the oldest in Ecuador and due to the fact that the Spanish ransacked the country, there are not a lot left. If they were not visually stunning, our guide certainly made up for that with her history lessons about the area. They are certainly worth a visit if you are in Cuenca though.

We stopped off for lunch on the way back, arriving back in Cuenca at around 4pm. Lynn went for a nap and I watched the 2nd half of the Middlesborough v Cardiff game. Cardiff won 2-0, it has been a weekend of cup upsets, Boro looked a sorry bunch.

So we head to Vilcabamba tomorrow and should be in Peru by the weekend at the latest. Speak to you then.

Lots of love
Murray and Lynn
xxx