Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Cuenca, Ecuador
After finishing my volunteer placement on Friday, I returned to Quito. Saturday was a day of admin, the highlight being getting all my clothes washed and dried. That was so good. However, by the end of the day I was already bored, not liking being on my own and missing the company at Jatun Sacha.
On Sunday morning I met two ladies from Hong Kong at breakfast at the hotel. When they heard I was going to Hong Kong later on the trip, they immediately said I should contact them when I got there, and gave me their contact details. This was even before we´d exchanged names! I found this quite surprising...but maybe this sort of hospitality is totally standard in other countries.
The loneliness is the down side of travelling on your own, but on Sunday I enjoyed one of the advantages - the freedom. I had intended to relax for a few days in Quito, but I was bored so on impulse decided to head south. This will be boring if you don´t have a map, but I´ll write it anyway: I went to Ambato, then Baños to collect something I´d left in a hostel safe, then back to Ambato, then to Guaranda. The journey to Guaranda was fantastic: we went up into the mountains and right past a volcano which looked something like this
I´d read that you could get cheese in Guaranda, but the woman was really grumpy in the only place that sold cheese, so I didn´t bother. This was a shame, because the views on the journey and the cheese were the only reasons I´d gone to Guaranda. There wasn´t much else to do there. On Monday I left and went to Riobamba. On the journey there, a local English student sat next to me and asked me to look at some stuff she´d written and correct it for her. We talked a bit so she could practice her English, but I was a bit concerned when she told me I had beautiful eyes! She also made me give her my email address so she can write to me in English.
Today was exciting: I did this touristy train ride. It quite literally goes down a sheer cliff face. Unfortunately, it doesn´t go straight down - which would be cool - rather it goes along, cut into the wall of the cliff, then the train has to change direction and the track goes along and down in the other direction. It was built in the 19th centuary and is very impressive. Also, you get to ride on the roof!
After that, I came to Cuenca, where I´ll be staying for a few days. Up till today I´ve just stayed in single rooms, so I decided to stay in a dorm in the town´s party hostel. This hostel incorporates a busy café/drinks bar, which is cool, but I couldn´t believe it when I was shown my dorm. It actually opens straight onto the café and the only windows look onto the café! So not somewhere I can walk to the shower in a towel, unfortunately.
After finishing my volunteer placement on Friday, I returned to Quito. Saturday was a day of admin, the highlight being getting all my clothes washed and dried. That was so good. However, by the end of the day I was already bored, not liking being on my own and missing the company at Jatun Sacha.
On Sunday morning I met two ladies from Hong Kong at breakfast at the hotel. When they heard I was going to Hong Kong later on the trip, they immediately said I should contact them when I got there, and gave me their contact details. This was even before we´d exchanged names! I found this quite surprising...but maybe this sort of hospitality is totally standard in other countries.
The loneliness is the down side of travelling on your own, but on Sunday I enjoyed one of the advantages - the freedom. I had intended to relax for a few days in Quito, but I was bored so on impulse decided to head south. This will be boring if you don´t have a map, but I´ll write it anyway: I went to Ambato, then Baños to collect something I´d left in a hostel safe, then back to Ambato, then to Guaranda. The journey to Guaranda was fantastic: we went up into the mountains and right past a volcano which looked something like this
I´d read that you could get cheese in Guaranda, but the woman was really grumpy in the only place that sold cheese, so I didn´t bother. This was a shame, because the views on the journey and the cheese were the only reasons I´d gone to Guaranda. There wasn´t much else to do there. On Monday I left and went to Riobamba. On the journey there, a local English student sat next to me and asked me to look at some stuff she´d written and correct it for her. We talked a bit so she could practice her English, but I was a bit concerned when she told me I had beautiful eyes! She also made me give her my email address so she can write to me in English.
Today was exciting: I did this touristy train ride. It quite literally goes down a sheer cliff face. Unfortunately, it doesn´t go straight down - which would be cool - rather it goes along, cut into the wall of the cliff, then the train has to change direction and the track goes along and down in the other direction. It was built in the 19th centuary and is very impressive. Also, you get to ride on the roof!
After that, I came to Cuenca, where I´ll be staying for a few days. Up till today I´ve just stayed in single rooms, so I decided to stay in a dorm in the town´s party hostel. This hostel incorporates a busy café/drinks bar, which is cool, but I couldn´t believe it when I was shown my dorm. It actually opens straight onto the café and the only windows look onto the café! So not somewhere I can walk to the shower in a towel, unfortunately.
# posted by Alex @ 5:31 PM 
