Cuenca to Montequillas
Cuenca (~7500 ft, ~400,000 ppl) is reported to be the arts and cultural capital of Ecuador, renown for its local crafts and markets. We wouldn’t really know because we spent 3 days and 2 nights there in self-enforced rehab from our outburst in Baños. We actually sat in the hostel and watched a movie. In […]
Baños
We got in into the little tourist town of Baños (~5000 people, ~6000 feet) wasted from the bus ride down and physically drained from the altitude in Quilatoa. We wandered around a bit looking for the right hostel and were twice offered the Matrimonial Suite. (Um…if that means a heart-shaped bed or the Magic Fingers […]
Quilatoa
We jumped a bus south and pulled out of Quito for the last time. The Sister was quite jubilant. We were heading for Quilatoa, a tiny town on the edge of a volcano crater at about 12,000 feet. The first bus was on the main highway, but when we transferred in Latacunga, the scene took […]
Quito
In many ways, Quito is like any other big city: an orgy of new faces, sounds, sights, and smells, fascinating and entrancing…for about 8 hours. Then it’s just crowded, loud, and intolerable. When the hell are we heading South? But by the second day, I was able to get past some of that […]