Ecuador Andes Adventure...Cuenca

Cuenca

After a long bus ride, we arrived in the colonial city of Cuenca. Instead of doing the hostel thing, we rented an apartment for a few days close to downtown. This worked out great as Cuenca is a wonderful city to walk. First on the agenda was a Double Decker bus tour of the city. There are some beautiful old churches and buildings throughout. A lovely river runs through the downtown area and both sides offer bike an walking trails. There is also a large population of expats...Americans who have chosen to retire here because of the favourable climate, relatively cheap accommodation and excellent chooses of fresh food.

Parque Calderon

San Blas church

There are wonderful markets in Cuenca...including a beautiful flower market, Many of the Indigenous women wear their traditional clothes...long skirts, fedoras and blouses.

Lime seller

The church in Chordeleg

 We took a day trip to Chordeleg to visit the silver artist. We also took a taxi to Cuenca du Banos and spent some time soaking in the hot springs. Our big day trip was to the Cajas National Park. It is about a 2 hour bus ride towards the coast and over the Continental Divide. The parks entrance is at 13,000 feet. We registered there, picked a route and hike for a few hours well above the tree line. Not to be missed if you end up in Cuenca.

 Back in town for more walking. Lot of excellent food options as well. We even dropped into a Panama hat factory...of course, we had to buy one.

This is one place I definitely could good back to and spend more time....even rent an apartment for a month or so....but we had to carry on and headed further south to the town of Vilcabamba and the hostel Izhcayluma. The hostel runs a van from Cuenca so it was an easy travel south.

Off to Vilcabamba and then a quick flight back to Quito and finally Octavalo.