Cuenca
A lot of people told us that Cuenca was a very nice, quiet and charming town. To be honest, for me it was nothing special, just another crowded town. The people here were more modern compared to the rest of Ecuador and there were a lot of fashion shops, and I had to do everything to prevent my girlfriend for shopping all days.
We did have a good hotel, hotel Milan on Cordova. Only $6 a night (for 2) with cable TV, so you can catch up some world news (and sports).
For food Cuenca was a little disappointing. The LP was
very positive about Restaurant Azteca, but we had our worst food over there. The
service was also pretty bad. We did like the Icecream at the heladeria Holandesa
(of course !!). We also went to one of the Shifa's. I must say that tasted
pretty good, the only problem is that you (well, we did) do not know what you
order. So many things we had never heard of and our translation guide did not
help us out here too.
Close to Cuenca there is another Banos,
smaller. This is a small town with some hot baths. We took our swimming gear and
took a local bus to Banos. It is only a 30 minutes' drive. We did not find a
natural spring, but we ran into a swimming pool at the big, local hotel called
Duran. It was a hot day and we were looking forward to a cold swim. We duck in
and.....the water was bloody hot.
On the hill there was a nice little blue church. Inside it is not very
spectacular, but from the outside it has an unique structure.
The Banos Church
Chordeleg
A nice daytrip is also the route to Gualaceo, Chordeleg and Sigsig. In Gualaceo and Sisig is not much action going on, but the way up there is exciting. Gualaceo is a little touristy place. Lots of small souvenir shops. Some of the women here walk around in beautiful clothing's. It took me a while before I could take one on a photo, but I made it. Looks like the wild, wild west.
Guayaguill
From Cuenca we took the bus to Guayaguill. The trip was
long, but also spectacular sometimes. For a while we drove above the clouds,
which resulted in some beautiful sights. Once again we had a flat tire underway
and had to stop again.
It was also a little strange that we were no longer on a high altitude. For the
first time since 3 weeks we were on sea level again.
We did not like Guayaguill. This is a typical smelly, noisy, dusty, sweaty, big town. We stayed in hotel Nuevo Sander on Avenida Luque. There are a lot of expensive hotels around and also a lot of cheap ones. The first ones were of course too expensive and the cheapest one looked like prisons. Hotel Nuevo Sander was cheap and not bad at all. Only the crowded street was pretty noisy.
In hotel Alexander (almost next door) they served pretty good and cheap food at night. Also the 5-star hotel Ore Verde has a very luxurious, but surprisingly cheap meals. The guests here are pretty stiff, but some unshaved, smelly backpackers are welcome too.
We ran out of town the next day for a daytrip to the beach. Buses go straight to Playas and take about 1,5 hours. It was nice to walk around the beach again. The beach was not very special, we called it a Dutch-beach-look-a-like. On the beach were some cafeterias, where you can sit down and have a drink or a meal. Unfortunately only fish, and that's what I don't like. We were here in the low season, which means that 95% of all restaurants and bars are closed. I thin in the high season this place can be pretty nice.
We took one of the last buses back to Guayaguill, because the next day we would fly to the Galapagos.