Cuenca to Loja

Our final morning on the Galapagos Islands was short but sweet. We managed to find somewhere open in Santa Cruz at half six in the morning to get a nice brekky to send us on our way then jumped in a pickup-style taxi that took us to the ferry to Isla Baltra. We were both really sad to leave, but really pleased with made the most of it with an extra few days after our cruise finished.

Our previously modified plane tickets were due to take us back to Quito, but as we had somewhat extended our stay we decided if we could we would hop off at Guayaquil and make our way out the southern end of Ecuador and into Peru, we would save ourselves considerable time. Fortunately to our surprise, yet again, this proved to be no problem whatsoever with TAME airlines. What a top bunch of people!

Landing at Guayaguil after a pleasant and uneventful flight we got straight into a taxi to the bus station, and in the usual way were immediately sent off in mad dash up to a bus that was just leaving. We just managed to squeeze into the last two seats right at the back of the bus for a truly stunning journey through the vast heights of the Parque Nacional Cajas on to Cuenca, Ecuador's most beautiful southern colonial city.

It was quite late by the time we arrived in Cuenca and we were well chuffed to find the beautiful Hostal Macondo had a genuinely lovely room for us. Both of us were proper pooped by this point so we nipped out for some grub before climbing into bed.

The next morning we headed out to see the sights. The old cathedral was vast and had this stunning main entrance.


The vast frontage of the cathedral. Then main plaza was beautifully planted and really made the buildings around it look lovely.


The rear of the cathedral was made up of 3 picturesque blue domes.


A beautifully ornate colonial building on the plaza.


Clairy loved this pic of the old men on the left playing chess and others just generally chilling out in the plaza.


Me checking out the directions against the backdrop of another gorgeous old building.


We sauntered down the speedy boulder filled Rio Tomebamba to the south of the city centre.


The sharply painted facades sometimes hid the not to sturdy looking mud bricks underneath.


Lovely ornate ironwork balconies.




Some gorgeous old buildings.




The next day we were off to the bus station to grab one to our next destination of Loja our last stop in Ecuador. On the way we spotted this chap chearfully leading his herd of goats along the pavement.


It was a 6 hour journey to Loja, so we decided to break up the journey by hopping off after 4 hours to have lunch in the little market town of Saraguro. This region, which means 'Land of Corn' in Quechua is home to the indigenous Saraguro, the most successful indigenous group in the southern highlands. The Saraguro once lived in the Lake Titicaca region of southern Peru, but were forcibly relocated through the empire's system of colonization known as mitimeas.

The Saraguro still mainly wear their traditional dress. The men sport a single long platted ponytail, black knee-legth shorts and a black poncho, and the women wear heavy pleated black skirts and shawls fastened with ornate silver pins called tupus, which are handed down from mother to daughter.

There was another well tended plaza in the centre of town.


The main reason I wanted to stop here was this place pictured below called Mama Cuchara (Mother Spoon). It was set up as a cooperative for local women and served downright gorgeous Almuerzos (set lunches). Obviously it was meat or meat, but Clairy put her portion on my plate and wolfed down the rest. It was bloody lovely, and cost just a tiny 75p each for soup with meat and plantains, a huge plate of meat rice and veg, and a glass of juice. We left a hefty tip to make ourselves feel a little better at getting such a bargain off the lovely ladies. Clairy also got a stunningly gorgeous woven necklace from the ladies selling the wears outside.


Soon after we jumped back on the next bus and carried on the last couple of hours to Loja. We passed some pretty scenery on the way. Check it out. Wild pampas grass!


The Andes stretching off into the distance.


Our main aim in Loja was to get most of our mahoosive Galapagos blogging up to date. We didn't end up taking many pictures although it was a pretty town with lots of huge murals that we meant to photograph but ran out of time. Here is one attractive building that we did get a piccy of.


On the morning we were leaving we snapped a couple of pics from the taxi.


Loja is known for being a particularly musical city, and just next to the bus station was this musically themed overpass.


From here we took a bus that would take us across the Peruvian border to Piura in the deserts of Northern Peru.