Cuenca, Banos and Quito

Cuenca

Our final week in South America has been spent in Ecuador. We crossed the boarder from Peru no problem and arrived in the Ecuadorian city of Cuenca, which is filled with cobbled streets, plazas and churches. We arrived in Cuenca on 28th February and strolled around the city. We walked around the main plaza Sebastian and parque Calderon to look at the cathedral and grab a milkshake at Tutto Freddo. We walked around the flower market in front of a colonial church on Plazoleta del Carmen, where a native woman working on one of the stalls gave me a free pink rose! As the sun was coming down we headed to Rio Tomebamba riverfront which is lined with beautiful old buildings and took a stroll before grabbing something to eat.

We had pretty much seen all there is to see in Cuenca in one day so we decided to stop off at a place called Banos on our way up to the capital, Quito.

Banos

Banos is a very small town situated in the middle of green peaks and waterfalls. We were told the best way to see the beautiful landscape was to hire a buggy for the day. So off we went on our little trip through the valleys, involving some off roading and some dodging the on coming traffic whilst trying to remember to drive on the right side of the road!! We drove through the Ulba valley stopping off to see the landscape and waterfalls of Rio Blanco and Rio Verde. It wasnt long before we realised we had gone a little too far out of town (mainly because of my driving!) but it was ok we managed to get back no problems and no accidents although we did have to off road quite a bit, which we both loved!

Quito

Our final destination is Ecuadors capital of Quito where we stayed for 2 nights to catch our flight up to Calgary. Quito is spread across the Andean valley and is divided up into 2 sections, the old town and the new town. We took a stroll around both and headed to the cities Teleferiqo, a sky tram that takes you up 4100 meters along Volcan Pichincha, above the city. The views from the top are spectacular and the air is amazingly fresh.

At the top, just when we thought Mark had gotten used to his flip flops he takes another tumble! We were ready to board the sky tram to go back down when I heard a crash, bang, wallop and turned around to see Mark had tripped over the huge step infront of him because he was busy doing 2 things at once, trying to find our tickets! Luckily for him (though not for the barrier) the barriers stopped him falling on his face, which was a good job because his hands were in his pockets! Hes ok though only a little cut on his toe!

So our South American adventure has come to an end and onto our Canadian adventure we go. We have a long flight ahead of us flying out of Quito to Panama for a connecting flight to LAX, then a flight to Calgary. We will be adding to the blog in a couple of weeks once we have gotten used to the cold!!

Speak to everyone soon, enjoy our photos, love Leanne and Mark xxx